Top 10 Exporters of Environmental Products
The European Union, China, the United States and Japan were the main exporters of environmental products in 2019, reported the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Its external sales in this field were calculated as follows: European Union (510,210 million dollars), China (279,877 million), United States (106,252 million) and Japan (85,738 million).
In this regard, the Combined List of Environmental Goods (CLEG) that was prepared by the OECD provides the six-digit level codes of the Harmonized System of 248 goods related to the environment.
Other relevant exporters were: Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Switzerland.
Environmental products
These 10 economies achieved a combined 88% share of world exports, while most developing countries were net importers of these products.
Tariffs on environmental products are on average 5-6% in developing countries with maximum tariffs exceeding 100% on some products, while in most developed countries they are below 1%.
For example, passenger motor vehicles (HS code 8703.90) are also included in CLEG as an environmental good, with a tariff of 125% in India, 100% in Pakistan, 80% in Nepal and 51%. in Egypt.
Top exporters of environmentally related goods
In 2019, the tariff revenue collected on these goods by developing countries amounted to $ 15 billion (using applied tariffs).
Therefore, the liberalization of trade in these products will mean a substantial loss of tariff revenue for developing countries.
This can have substantial adverse effects, especially now when domestic funding sources are urgently needed both to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and to address climate change.
Services
Although there is no consensus on which goods should be included in the list of environmental goods, environmental services have already been classified for the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations.
Negotiations on environmental services have traditionally been conducted within the framework of the Council for Trade in Services and have focused on sewerage services, garbage disposal services and sanitation services, which are listed in the environmental services sector. from the Services Sectoral Classification List (GATT, 1991).
However, there are attempts to broaden the scope of environmental services to include services such as engineering, architecture, design, general management, construction.
