Adding new products to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) List of Environmental Goods can boost the region’s responses to calls for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and achievement of environmental sustainability, according to an APEC Policy Support Unit policy brief.
Carlos Kuriyama, a senior analyst with the APEC Policy Support Unit, said that from a trade perspective, a more meaningful contribution in support of green growth requires a more comprehensive range of products.
“APEC economies should explore an expansion of its list of environmental goods, to cover new technologies that could contribute to green growth, but did not exist or had limited applications back in 2012; and encourage APEC economies to consider goods that are cleaner or more environmentally friendly,” he said.
The list is a commitment endorsed by leaders in 2012 to reduce tariff rates of 54 goods to 5 percent or less by the end of 2020 with the intention to improve access to environmental technologies and contribute to green growth and trade liberalization.
