“The Administration and Congress can promote green jobs at home and advance global environmental objectives by incorporating a more robust green trade component into the international climate agenda. In particular, efforts to expand overseas markets for U.S. climate technologies by reducing trade barriers are critical for creating new green collar jobs in the United States and can aid global climate goals,” Colvin stated in his testimony.

He noted that U.S. exporters selling environmental goods and services face disproportionately high tariffs, as well as non-tariff barriers that present even larger obstacles. “Reducing these impediments would allow U.S. companies to capture a larger share of the more than $600 billion environmental goods and services market, which is growing at twice the rate of all trade,” he said.

Colvin pointed out that green trade “has not received a great deal of attention in international climate negotiations despite the clear environmental benefits,” and highlighted that the NFTC and eight other leading U.S. business organizations sent a letter to the president in July, urging the Administration to lower green trade barriers and pursue a green trade agreement “through all appropriate international economic and environmental forums.”

In contrast, he stated, “Two issues that have received a great deal of attention in international climate discussions are intellectual property rights and financing. Ensuring the global protection of intellectual property rights and addressing funding and capacity needs in developing countries will promote investment environments abroad that are better able to adopt and develop clean technologies.”

With respect to U.S. competitiveness, Colvin cautioned, “As Congress seeks to address competitiveness and carbon leakage concerns from implementing an emissions reduction program, one popular option – the use of border adjustment measures – could damage the ability of American companies to compete in key markets and global environmental cooperation. Given the increasing reliance on exports to grow the U.S. economy and create new jobs, it is essential to avoid introducing measures that could cause unnecessary friction with U.S. trading partners.” He noted that the international reserve allowance program included in the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act, which could lead our trading partners to argue that “such a program is as likely to be fueled by a desire to protect domestic industry as by an interest in protecting the environment.”

Colvin concluded by stating, “Aggressive and innovative green trade policies can assist efforts to advance U.S. economic priorities and environmental goals, but attempts to impose new tariffs could harm both,” said Colvin. “Efforts to open markets abroad for U.S. businesses and workers in the clean technology arena will be essential to rebalance the global economy and create the next generation of green manufacturing jobs in the United States.”

For Colvin’s full testimony, please click here. For an archived Webcast of this morning’s proceedings, please visit http://energy.senate.gov/.
 

Advancing Global Commerce for 95 Years -The National Foreign Trade Council is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.

“There are a lot of challenges here that are surmountable but have to be dealt with one by one by all of us. I think for the Americans and the Europeans in particular, the challenges are first to not only agree to but to implement meaningful emission reduction targets. I think also the challenge is going to be to avoid adding on protectionist measures and trade barriers that are intended to limit imports of carbon-intensive products from countries that perhaps haven’t adopted the targets.

“One way to avoid that of course is if everybody agrees to targets and we have a multilateral approach to the problem. Even in the absence of that though, having those kinds of trade barriers is going to make the achievement of all of our goals a lot more difficult, and one of the things we’re [the NFTC] working very hard on is to try to make sure that that doesn’t become a big impediment as far as the American legislation is concerned.

“In turn, I think the challenges for the developing countries, including India and China, but also many others, are first also to agree to targets that are meaningful and give global confidence that we’re all working together to deal with a global commons problem. And also I think their challenge, where a lot of progress has been made very recently, I think in particular reflected in the statement the Prime Minister made here, is on the intellectual property area.

“I think there is a growing appreciation amongst all parties, particularly in developing countries, that strong intellectual property protection is actually an enhancement to investment, an enhancement to R&D in their countries, and is a way for developing countries to protect green innovation and green technology that are very much going to be the products of India and China and not simply of Europe and the United States. So, I’m optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction on that front although there have been a lot of statements in the past that have suggested that this was going to be a rocky area.”

Reinsch also called on the international community to produce an environmental goods and services trade agreement that will lower tariffs and market-access barriers to green technology.

Note: Next Tuesday NFTC Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin will testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing to explore the international aspects of global climate change.