Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
25
Trade and environment policy-making in the
Arab region
Carol Chouchani Cherfane
*
In November 2007, an expert meeting on trade and environment priorities facing the Arab
region was convened in Cairo, Egypt under the auspices of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The meeting involved delegates from ministries of environment, trade, industry and
economy from nearly all Arab countries, as well as representatives from regional organi-
zations, the private sector and civil society. The conference was organized by the League
of Arab States (LAS), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia (ESCWA) and the United Nations Environment Program Regional O
ce for West
Asia (UNEP/ROWA). Discussions focused on key issues, including the liberalization of
environmental goods and services; the impact of environmental requirements on market
access and competitiveness; the e
ects of globalization and trade liberalization on the
environment; trade and environment policy coordination; and climate change.
The meeting illustrates the wide range of topics that have now become mainstream trade
and environment concerns in developing countries, as well as the number of di
ff
erent stake-
holders involved in the process of trade and environment policy-making in the Arab
region. While the event built upon of a series of meetings conducted on varied trade and
environment topics over the course of several years, it is worth noting that this gathering
concluded with a number of recommendations that were subsequently adopted by the
Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment (CAMRE) in December
2007.
1
The Council also mandated that the recommendations be submitted to the Arab
Summit for Development for consideration by the heads of state in 2008. Such an outcome
would have been unimaginable in the region a decade earlier.
ff
Regional background
The introduction of trade and environment issues on to the policy agenda is a relatively
new phenomenon in the Arab region. The change in appreciation is due in large part to
the growing recognition that trade and environmental issues should be addressed within
an integrated policy framework that seeks to achieve sustainable development.
Before the 1990s, trade and environment issues were generally de
ned in terms of trade-
related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) as government and civil society
mostly thought about the topic in terms of managing natural resources and mitigating the
negative e
fi
ff
ects of trade on the environment. Military con
fl
icts in the developing world
raised the pro
le of these interlinkages by exposing how a power vacuum can provide
fertile ground for wayward traders seeking to dispose of hazardous materials in countries
in crisis, such as in Lebanon during its long civil war. The threats associated with illicit
trade in these substances led to the signing of the Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal in 1989, which most
Arab countries have rati
fi
fi
ed. At the Arab regional level, the political aspects of these
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