On 12 October and on 1 November 2005, substantive information exchange sessions were held to discuss the products which Members had proposed for the negotiations on environmental goods. This provided a useful opportunity for Members, including New Zealand, to explain the trade, environmental and development benefits of the products that have been proposed to date.

At these two information exchange sessions, the linkages between environmental goods and environmental services were explored. New Zealand, for instance, referred to a range of current and forthcoming studies that underline the close relationship between environmental goods and environmental services.   New Zealand also reported in some detail on the linkages it considered existed between the delivery of environmental services related to the items it had proposed. New Zealand made specific reference to environmental services related to wastewater management products, environmentally preferable products defined by end-use, products that can assist in natural risk management and soil and water remediation and clean-up products. It was also noted by many Members that the linkages between the negotiations in the CTESS and those underway in the Special Session of the Committee on Trade in Services should be borne in mind during the negotiations on environmental goods. In this regard, New Zealand further recalled a report by the Chair of the CTESS to the Trade Negotiations Committee. This confirmed that there was broad support in the CTESS for the view that the negotiations on environmental services be conducted as part of the overall services negotiations in the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services.  Moreover, New Zealand is also a co-sponsor of a plurilateral request on environmental services which is being pursued as part of the complementary approaches to the services market access negotiations, as mandated by the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.

At both of the information exchanges in 2005, New Zealand also took the opportunity to note that it stood ready to engage on the range of cross-cutting issues identified in paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha Declaration. Indeed, some of the products on the New Zealand list were being provided through a form of technology transfer to developing countries, particularly in the South Pacific region, with a particular emphasis on wastewater management products, monitoring and assessment equipment and soil and water remediation and clean-up items.

In terms of the issue of non-tariff barriers, New Zealand like other Members regarded this as a similarly serious issue. It proposed that discussion move from the abstract and conceptual to the practical and New Zealand looked forward to the identification of specific non-tariff barriers that affected Members’ market access for environmental goods.

At the information exchange sessions and subsequently, New Zealand took the opportunity to note that it saw scope to ensure that special and differential treatment issues be addressed. This particular issue has been taken up in a specific proposal on modalities that New Zealand co sponsored.