Negotiating Plurilateral WTO Environmental Goods Agreement: Translating Trade RemedyWar into Green Growth Alternative

The ongoing plurilateral WTO Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations reflect the two defining dynamics that affect global environmental and trade governance. First of all, the rising trade remedies against environmental goods increased the cost of pursuing green growth for countries. Secondly, the looming fragmentation caused by mega-regionalism, such as the Trans-Pacific- Partnership, and its trade diversion effects might disincentivize developing countries from pursuing environmentally-friendly growth in order to obtain market access. Current negotiations for a plurilateral approach reflect the efforts of multilateral systems to confront these challenges through a reform of the rules of global trade architecture, thereby paving the way for further greengrowth. That’s why this paper is divided into three sections. The first one analyzes the trade remedies targeting environmental goods, and its consequences for global environmental governance. The second section analyses whether the current plurilateral approach can provide developingcountries with an alternative incentive for green growth to compensate the potential trade diversion of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership. The third part gives a brief overview of the progress of the ongoing negotiations.