Ahead of the next round of Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations, Cerame-Unie published a position paper in support of the EU’s intention to develop green growth and protect the environment but, at the same time, underlying the concerns of the European ceramic industry regarding the EGA.

EGA negotiations have resumed between the European Union and 16 other WTO members further to the Nairobi round in December 2015. The 12th round of negotiations took place from 2 to 4 March 2016 in Geneva.

This EGA aims at removing tariffs on several hundreds of products. Should the plurilateral talks result in a completed EGA, the products under discussion would ultimately subject be to 0% import-export duties in 17 countries, including the EU, US China and Japan. However, important trade partners such as Russia and Brazil are not taking part in the discussions.

Since the beginning of the negotiations, the ceramic industry has highlighted the need to keep ceramic products outside of the EGA. Cerame-Unie actively participated in two public stakeholder meetings in September 2015 and February 2016.

In this context, Cerame-Unie expresses its concerns regarding the following issues:

• Lack of a clear definition for "environmental good"
• Failure to take into account the environmental impact of goods over their full life cycle
• Need to assess the impact on EU growth and jobs
• Compliance of "non-EU green goods" with REACH Regulation, CPR, safety at work and CSRs, environmental rules
• Consistency with the EU trade defence instruments (TDI) policy
• Technical analysis of ceramic goods being considered for inclusion

The next round of negotiations will take place in Geneva during the week of 18 April 2016.

read the position paper