Trade and Climate

What is the linkage between U.S. and international efforts to address climate change and our international trade policies and obligations?

USTR's environment office works at the interface of this question, with a view to advancing creative and pragmatic solutions to the climate challenge while ensuring that U.S. actions to address climate change - as well as the actions of our trading partners - are consistent with our international trade policies and our WTO obligations.

USTR's efforts support President Obama's commitment to create a greener domestic and global economy. By transforming the United States economy to a low-carbon economy, we can stimulate global economic growth and put our workers, farmers and manufacturers at the forefront of the global economy.

In particular, USTR is working to eliminate trade barriers to environmental goods and services in the WTO Doha negotiations, as well as through our free trade agreements, and through our collaborative work in APEC.

For more on USTR's efforts related to trade and climate change, please check out the links and information below.

U.S. submissions to the WTO on Environmental Goods and Services

Summary of US-EU proposal

 


Remark from Ambassador Kirk

“The Administration believes that the best approach to address concerns with carbon leakage is to negotiate a new international climate change agreement in the United Nations that ensures that all the major emitters take long term, significant action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We look forward to working with these countries to negotiate a meaningful global climate agreement and actively avoiding circumstances in which we are simply exporting carbon emissions abroad.”