• Research
  • Diwan
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Middle East logoCarnegie lettermark logo
LebanonIran
{
  "authors": [
    "Scott Vaughan"
  ],
  "type": "other",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
  ],
  "collections": [],
  "englishNewsletterAll": "",
  "nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "",
  "programs": [],
  "projects": [],
  "regions": [],
  "topics": [
    "Economy",
    "Trade",
    "Climate Change"
  ]
}
REQUIRED IMAGE

REQUIRED IMAGE

Other

Trade Preferences and Environmental Goods

Link Copied
By Mr. Scott Vaughan
Published on Feb 19, 2003

Source: Carnegie

For the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most important development in a decade related to trade-environment linkages is the agreement to liberalize commerce in environmental goods and services. If properly executed, the agreement will increase the availability of "green" goods in global markets and break the North-South deadlock that has paralyzed discussion on the trade regime governing such goods.

However, WTO members appear to be limiting negotiations to capital-intensive environmental technologies and engineering services, for which developed countries enjoy a comparative advantage. These goods account for the largest part of the $525 billion spent annually on the environmental sector worldwide. However, they are neither the sole nor most visible part of environmental markets. Green consumer goods - from energy-efficient lighting to recycled products - together with resource-based products, including organic produce and sustainable forest and fisheries products, need to come within the purview of WTO negotiations.

Click on link above for full text of this TED Policy Brief.

A limited number of print copies are available.
Request a copy

About the Author
Scott Vaughan
is visiting scholar with the Carnegie Endowment. He previously held positions with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Environment Program, the Royal Bank Financial Group (Canada), and the Canadian federal minister of the environment.

The Trade, Equity, and Development (TED) Series is part of an effort by Carnegie's Trade, Equity, and Development Project to broaden the debate surrounding trade liberalization to include perspectives not normally present in the Washington policy community.

Also in the TED series:
Controlling Corruption: A Key to Development-Oriented Trade, Peter Eigen
Environment's New Role in U.S. Trade Policy, John Audley
Reforming Global Trade in Agriculture: A Developing-Country Perspective, Shishir Priyadarshi
Doha: Is It Really a Development Round?, Kamal Malhotra

About the Author

Mr. Scott Vaughan

Former Visiting Scholar

    Recent Work

  • Report
    NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemishphere
      • +1

      Dr. Demetrios Papademetriou, Mr. John Audley, Ms. Sandra Polaski, …

  • Other
    Decoding Cancun: Hard Decisions for a Development Round
      • +1

      Mr. John Audley, George Perkovich, Ms. Sandra Polaski, …

Mr. Scott Vaughan
Former Visiting Scholar
EconomyTradeClimate Change

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

  • Commentary
    Introduction: Beyond Climate Displacement

    Across the Middle East and North Africa, climate stress interacts with economic fragility, governance failures, social marginalization, and conflict.

      Camille Ammoun

  • Article
    Climate Pressures in Algeria: The Crisis in Rural Kabylie

    Understanding how farmers in the Oued Sahel-Soummam Valley grapple with climate change is essential for addressing the paradoxes through which adaptation, operating at both individual and institutional levels, deepens the region’s vulnerability and erodes the social fabric and agrarian identity that once defined life.

      Ilyssa Yahmi

  • Commentary
    Diwan
    Climate Worsens the Distress of Yemen’s Muhammasheen

    The community already suffers social discrimination, so addressing inequalities requires sustained interventions.

      Musaed Aklan , Mohammad Al-Saidi

  • Commentary
    Diwan
    Lake Qaraoun and Migratory Pressures

    Lebanon’s largest water reservoir is a house of many mansions when it comes to converging failures.

      Camille Ammoun

  • Article
    Afro-Iraqis, Climate Change, and Environmental Injustice in Basra

    Afro-Iraqis experience political, economic, and social marginalization and discrimination, which exposes the poorest members of the community to the harsh realities of the region’s climate disaster.

      Zeinab Shuker

Get more news and analysis from
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
Carnegie Middle East logo, white
  • Research
  • Diwan
  • About
  • Experts
  • Projects
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
Get more news and analysis from
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.