Advisory mission to China on policy and technical aspects of the negotiations under the mandate provided for in paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration

Beijing, China, 22 August 2005

At the request of the Ministry of Commerce of China, the CBTF fielded an advisory mission to Beijing on 22-23 August with a view to assisting the Chinese authorities concerned in dealing with the various policy and technical aspects of the negotiations on environmental goods, and more specifically those relating to the product coverage, negotiating modalities and implementation problems to be handled by the Customs.

The mission was conducted as a two-day meeting between two teams of experts – national and international – with the following four lines of expertise represented on both teams:
1. environmental industry;
2. environmental policy and regulations;
3. trade policy and negotiations; and
4. customs, more specifically tariff classification.

The Chinese team was led by Department of WTO Affairs of Ministry of Commerce. The following ministries/agencies were represented: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, National Development and Reform Commission, State Environmental Protection Administration, General Administration of Customs, University of International Business and Economics, Policy Research Centre for Environment and Economy and the Association of Environmental Protection Industry.

The international team was lead by UNCTAD and included a representative of UNEP and an expert from the WCO.

Participants in the meeting addressed issues of particular interest to China in environmental and resource management. More technical discussions were held on imported environmental goods as well as on environmentally preferable products of export interest to China; the various ways of positioning those in the negotiations; "managing" the negotiations under, and the risks implicit in, the various negotiating approaches; and the ways and means of ensuring effective S&D treatment for the developing Members.

Coordinators