Amidst growing trade dispute over import tariff duties on environmental goods such as solar panels, wind turbines, wastewater filters and air pollution control products, leading countries have begun talks hoping to put an end to the tariff dilemma.
The United States, China, European Union are joining 11 other countries to end tariffs on nearly $1 trillion of environmental goods, according to news reports. A decision on tariff cut up to 35 percent is expected.
The WTO members participating in the discussion account for 86 percent of global trade in the products, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). The U.S alone exported US$106 billion in goods such as turbines, solar panels and filters to treat wastewater last year, USTR said.
The US, Taiwan, China and the 28-nation EU are among participants in the talks that have been ensnared in trade disputes over solar-energy equipment in recent years
“Today’s launch of the Environmental Goods Agreement underscores environmental protection on all fronts,” US Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. The agreement will help U.S exporters gain from the burgeoning international market for clean energy products.
In a major breakthrough, countries participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings have agreed to cut tariffs on 54 environmental products by 5 percent by the end of next year. In addition to the main participants, countries like Taiwan, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland were present at the meeting.