"Green Trade Protectionism": An Analysis of Three New Issues that Affect Developing Countries

The environment is increasingly being used to justify protectionist measures that enjoy greater social legitimacy. Over the last few years, new issues have emerged in relation to this, and three of them are analysed in this paper: green growth and green economy, climate change response measures, and the liberalization of environmental goods and services. These new issues are being used both to apply barriers to goods and services coming from developing countries and to improve the market access of developed countries' exports of industrial products. All this amounts to "green protectionism" which is aimed at improving the trade balance of developed countries, particularly in relation to developing countries. In the many fora where these topics are being discussed, Argentina states that these issues should neither result in green protectionism nor encourage policies that constitute disguised restrictions on international trade, which is inconsistent with the multilateral trading system and with international environmental law, and in particular with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.