Global trade rules can help fight climate change: US trade chief

  • Date: 17-Apr-2021
  • Source: Kuwait Times
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Kuwait
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Global trade rules can help fight climate change: US trade chief

WASHINGTON: International commerce creates incentives for countries to erode environmental protections to attract investment, and global trade rules are needed to counter that "race to the bottom,“ US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Thursday. "The view that environmental issues are not an inherent part of trade ignores the reality that the existing rules of globalization incentivize downward pressure on environmental protection,“ Tai said in her first public speech.

"This puts countries with higher environmental standards at a competitive disadvantage,“ she said in the address to the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington think tank. Speaking ahead of President Joe Biden's virtual climate summit this week, Tai said she was committed to strengthening rules in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to combat issues like illegal logging and overfishing.

"The forests are our planet's lungs, and we should use trade policies and trade enforcement actions to protect them,“ she said, however, the rules are ineffective if they are not enforced. "Going forward, trade has a role to play in discouraging the race to the bottom and incentivizing a race to the top,“ Tai said. "But we have to be mindful that we will only truly address the global scale of this problem