UNCTAD’s new forum on trade, green economy to hold first session

UNCTAD’s yet-to-be established Forum on Trade and the Green Economy will hold its first session in December 2012 as soon it is set up, the UN trade body has said.

The Forum will have as one of its objectives the resolution of conflicts involving trade rules and government environmental measures before they progress to more formal dispute–settlement mechanisms.

According to UNCTAD, the Forum will be scheduled to meet twice a year, giving a panel of experts the opportunity to moderate and suggest solutions, the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board (TDB) was told.

The intent is to have “an institutional space… not to legislate, but to reduce frictions and perhaps to reduce trade disputes,” said Guillermo Valles, Director of the Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities (DITC), UNCTAD.

With the involvement of academics, policy economists and trade officials, UNCTAD hoped that solutions may emerge that save such issues from going before more formal dispute–resolution mechanisms such as those at the World Trade Organization.

By Ekow Quandzie