The Critical Mass Approach to Achieve a Deal on Green Goods and Services : What Is on the Table? How Much to Expect?

de Melo, Jaime ; Vijil, Mariana

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: ABATEMENT;    ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE;    AGGREGATE IMPORTS;    AVERAGE TARIFF;    AVERAGE TARIFF LEVELS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7061
RP-ID  :  WPS7061

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

At the Davos forum of January 2014, agroup of 14 countries pledged to launch negotiations onliberalizing trade in "green goods" (also known as"environmental" goods), focusing on theelimination of tariffs for an Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation list of 54 products. The paper shows that theDavos group, with an average tariff of 1.8 percent, haslittle to offer as countries have avoided submittingproducts with tariff peaks for tariff reductions. Even ifthe list were extended to the 411 products on the WorldTrade Organization list, taking into account tariffdispersion, the tariff structure on environmental goodswould be equivalent to a uniform tariff of 3.4 percent,about half the uniform tariff-equivalent fornon-environmental goods. Enlarging the number ofparticipants to low-income countries might be possible as,on average, their imports would not increase by more than 8percent. However, because of the strong complementaritiesbetween trade in environmental goods and trade inenvironmental services, these should also be brought to thenegotiation table, although difficulties in reachingagreement on their scope are likely to be great.