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Additional Technical Consultation on the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement Negotiations

The negotiation of a plurilateral Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) among a group of World Trade Organization (WTO) Members was launched on July 8, 2014, with the objective of achieving global free trade in environmental goods. The current participants in this initiative are Canada, Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Costa Rica, the European Union, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. Additional WTO Members could potentially join the negotiations, and a successful agreement would also be open to participation by other WTO Members. It is expected that the negotiations, if successful, would result in the elimination of tariffs on the final list of products on a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) basis.

In preparation for these negotiations, the Government of Canada conducted a domestic consultation process allowing all interested stakeholders the opportunity to provide input on a potential EGA. This consultation process was launched on May 3, 2014, through notices in the Canada Gazette as well as on the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Website. Stakeholders were invited to indicate their products of interest based on a preliminary list of environmental goods and were also encouraged to provide additional goods that they wished to be considered for nomination by Canada.

A wide variety of Canadian stakeholders participated in this consultation process, which resulted in the identification of a number of additional products to be considered as environmental goods.  The Government is now inviting stakeholders to provide comments regarding the potential tariff elimination on these products, which were not included on the preliminary consultation list.  With negotiations having commenced, other participating WTO Members have made their own nominations, which are being considered in confidence by other participants as part of the negotiations.  The Government also welcomes expressions of interest or concern from stakeholders on other goods that are not included in this list of additional Canadian nominations.

Submissions by interested parties

We invite interested parties to consult the list of additional environmental goodsNote * and provide responses to the following three questions:

  1. Do you have concerns about Canada reducing or eliminating tariffs on any of the identified goods? If so, please clearly indicate the goods (including HS codes) and provide context and details.
  2. Do your support the reduction or elimination of tariffs on any of the identified goods?  If so, please clearly indicate the goods (including HS codes) and provide context and details regarding your level of export priority for the goods of interest.
  3. Aside from merchandise tariffs, do you have concerns about other barriers when exporting any of the identified goods to countries participating to the negotiations? If so, please describe them in as much detail as possible for each destination country. This will enable the Government of Canada to better assist you in doing business internationally.

The deadline for receiving input and comments is August 7, 2015. Please be advised that any information received as a result of this consultation will be considered as public information, unless explicitly designated as private. Submissions should include the contributor’s name and address and, if applicable, his/her organization, institution or business.

Additional Information

For more information about the first consultation process, please visit the Consultations on a Plurilateral Environmental Goods Agreement webpage. 

Additional information on Canada’s participation to the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations can be found in the Trade and Environment section.

Additional information on Canada’s relationship with the countries participating to this initiative can be found on the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service website.

For more information on the WTO and WTO Members, please consult the WTO website.

Contact Point

Questions and contributions may be sent by e-mail or mail to:

WTO Environmental Goods Negotiations Consultations
Government Procurement, Trade and Environment Division (TPZ)
Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario   K1A 0G2
Email: ENVconsultations@international.gc.ca 

Questions or comments regarding Canadian tariffs may also be sent by e-mail or mail to:

WTO Environmental Goods Negotiations Consultations
International Trade Policy Division
Department of Finance
90 Elgin Street, 14th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario   K1A 0G5
Email: Tariff-Tarif@fin.gc.ca

Notes

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