WTO Developing Carbon Framework

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is developing a framework for carbon-pricing in order to further bolster the ongoing carbon border adjustment measures that are likely to be imposed by the European Union early next year while the United States appears to be developing a framework for imposing carbon duties, our correspondent has learned.

Several members are expressing concern that instead of focusing on the core mandated and unresolved issues from the previous ministerial meetings, including the Doha Development Agenda, the DG appears to be frittering away the limited resources of the Secretariat on developing the carbon-pricing framework, an issue that has not been formally mandated by members or by trade ministers at any previous meeting, said several Secretariat insiders who asked not to be identified.