While an international agreement to combat plastic pollution is expected this year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is supporting this approach with a text in which 76 of its member states pledge to adopt more environmentally-friendly trade practices. The document will be published at the end of February 2024, during the WTO's thirteenth Ministerial Conference (CM13) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The “Agreement on the Control of Pollution by Plastics and on Environmentally Sustainable Trade in Plastics” represents a major step forward. The new text co-authored by 76 World Trade Organization (WTO) member states on 163, as part of its Dialogue on Plastic Pollution, was finalized on January 26, 2024. This text on plastics will have required substantive technical discussions, conducted since November 2020, including multiple workshops and surveys, explained Rebecca Barton, Counsellor at Australia’s Permanent Mission to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland.
Among the 76 co-authors of the text on the fight against plastic pollution and environmentally sustainable trade in plastics is Morocco, which joined the WTO in 1995. “It is important that WTO member states take up the 21st century challenge of plastic pollution. The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2040, 19% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will come from plastics”, said Omar Zniber, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco in Geneva, who is also coordinating negotiations at the WTO Dialogue on Plastic Pollution.
The ministerial declaration published at the end of February in Abu Dhabi
In the Kingdom of Morocco, where more than one million tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year, over 33% of which is dumped in uncontrolled landfills, the main customer markets for plastics are the food industry (30%), construction and public works (15%) and agriculture (12%), according to the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Morocco. And globally, these materials obtained by polymerizing compounds account for 85% of world trade volume, or a colossal $1,000 a year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The ministerial declaration on the text, on the fight against plastic pollution and environmentally sustainable trade in plastics, will be issued at the WTO’s thirteenth Ministerial Conference (MC13), to be held at the end of February 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). “It will send a clear signal that trade can make a significant contribution to concrete solutions to the pressing challenges of plastic pollution,” said Daniela Garcia, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the WTO. Furthermore, this declaration will complement discussions within the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) and other relevant committees and bodies of the international organization, which aim to promote a global circular economy by facilitating trade along supply chains.
An evolutionary approach to reducing the plastics trade
These discussions, born of the recognition that coordinated action was needed to address the rising environmental, health and economic costs of plastics pollution, and that trade was an important part of the solution, will also strengthen the links between trade and climate action, including through collaboration on programs addressing the carbon content of traded products, and helping small, poor countries to access green finance.
“The life-cycle approach will provide a better understanding of this complex and diverse global trade, whether in fossil fuel inputs and virgin plastic polymers in the form of resin pellets or fibers, or in products, packaging and ultimately waste”, says UNCTAD.
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The possibility of modifying the Harmonized System (HS) used to classify traded goods was also raised, to enable better monitoring of trade in plastic products in WTO member countries.
The finalization of this text comes at a time when the planet is awaiting the entry into force, in 2024, of the international agreement aimed at combating plastic pollution. The 4th session of negotiations on the treaty, which will cover the entire plastic life cycle, including production, use and disposal, will be held in Ottawa, Canada, in April 2024.
Inès Magoum
