Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Robert Ackrill 
Author-Name: Adrian Kay
Title: WTO Regulations and Bioenergy Sustainability Certification – Synergies and Possible Conflicts
Abstract: Biofuels are increasingly being produced and consumed as a partial substitute to
fossil-fuel based transport fuels in the fight against climate change. One policy
introduced recently by some countries to help ensure biofuels perform better than
fossil fuels environmentally is sustainability criteria. These, typically, require lower
greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels, considering not only their use but also
production. Concerns have been expressed from various quarters that such criteria
could represent WTO-incompatible barriers to trade. The present paper addresses two
specific issues. First, it argues that biofuels should be treated like any other traded
product under WTO law, in particular the GATT agreement. Thus an importing
country could not impose different trade measures dependent on whether the biofuel
was produced according to its sustainability criteria. Second, the TBT Agreement
provides guidance on how to draw up international standards that can help ensure
WTO compatibility. This cannot guarantee such compatibility, but it can help reduce
significantly the chances of WTO Members bringing actions against a fellow
Member’s biofuels sustainability criteria. There is little direct case law to draw upon,
but it is argued that, if the TBT guidance is followed, in the long term the absence of
case law can be taken as an indication that sustainability criteria are WTO-compatible.
File-URL: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/311413/a-gravity-model-approach-to-estimating.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2010
Creation-Date: 2010-12
Classification-JEL: F13, F18, Q16
Keywords: biofuels, sustainability, WTO
Handle: RePEc:nbs:wpaper:2010/9