21. World Trade Organization (WTO)

Since the WTO’s annual report identified that non-tariff measures having a negative impact on trade have been continually increased, many environmental measures have been examined at the WTO to see if they cause unnecessary obstacles to free trade. In fact, in 2012, several technical standards or sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures were challenged between the WTO members as to whether they were consistent with the WTO rules, and important reports from the dispute settlement bodies on three cases that involved the interpretation and application of the essential substantive provisions of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) were released for the first time. In addition, special courses on the TBT Agreement and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) were also opened in order to build capacity in WTO members to implement them at the national level. While the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) is the main forum for discussing trade and environment issues at the WTO, the TBT Committee and the SPS Committee have participated more actively in devising guidelines on trade-related environmental measures this past year.