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Green Economy and Trade. Ad hoc Expert Group 2: Trade Remedies in Green Sectors: the Case of Renewables


03 - 04 April 2014
Salle XXVI
Geneva
, Switzerland

In recent years, trade remedies - anti-dumping and countervailing duties - have increasingly been directed towards goods used in conjunction with renewable energy sources - solar panels, wind turbines and biofuels. This puts these measures at cross purposes with national and international climate and environment policies.

The geopolitics and political economy are more complicated though. The developed as well as the developing countries are using these measures. And while one can argue that a given amount of environmental expenditure would go further in the absence of trade remedies, it is not clear that the amount of public support would remain at the same level.

There can be little doubt that trade remedies are a sensitive area. Trade remedies may have a significant effect on value and job creation throughout the supply chain as a whole. Trade remedies are bound to have competitive implications. Trade remedies against renewables provide a counterpoint to the initiative to reduce tariffs on environmental goods, particularly since some of the most active users of trade remedies participate in the initiative. Trade remedies shatter the alliances among interest groups. A profound shift is under way in the new generation of “trade and environment” disputes.

Questions:

  • What are the actual or potential effects of trade remedies involving renewables?
  • What kind of conclusions can be drawn from trade remedies cases since 2008?
  • Are there alternative approaches that might lessen the impact of trade remedies on the deployment of renewable energy?
  • What is the impact of trade remedies on jobs and value added?
  • Are competitors with different supply chain using trade remedy cases to "raid" each other?
  • Can aligning the anti-dumping rules with the competition or anti-trust rules  help make sure they only remedy truly anti-competitive behavior - as opposed to undesired competition?
  • Are there ways of providing more robust, empirically sound and predictable outcomes in trade remedies investigations and better connect trade law to the "real world"?
  • Do trade remedies constitute a problem for the liberalization of trade in environmental goods and services?- How can countries, individually and collectively, manage the interface between two deeply held goals: “fair international trade” and “GHG control”?

Experts:

  • Gary Hufbauer, Peterson Institute
  • Vangelis Vitalis, Ambassador of New Zealand to the EU
  • Bernard Hoekman, Professor, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute
  • Joost Pauwelyn, Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute
  • Thomas Cottier, Managing Director, World Trade Insitute
  • Aaron Cosbey, Senior Fellow, IISD
  • Gary Horlick,  Attorney at Law Offices of Gary N. Horlick
  • Mark Wu, Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School
  • Jesse Kreier, Counsellor, WTO
  • Geraldine Ang, OECD
  • Charles Julien, Counsel, King and Spalding, Geneva
  • Jonas Kasteng, Swedish Board of Trade
  • Han Yong, Director, Bureau of Fair Trade, Ministry of Commerce of China
  • Victor Manuel Aguilar Perez, Chief, Unit on International Trade Practices, Ministry of Economy of Mexico
  • Nurlaila Nur Muhammad, Director for Trade Defense, Ministry of Trade, Indonesia
  • Kalanithi Nesaretnam, Minister, Mission of Malaysia to the EU
  • Mukesh Bhatnagar, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
  • Oliver Ehrentraut, Senior Programme Officer, Prognos
  • Gaston Funes, Counsellor for Agriculture, Mission of Argentina to the EU
  • Daniel Peat, Cambridge University

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Trade and environment Trade and environment

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Contact

Yvonne Paredes-Ayma Yvonne.Paredes@unctad.org