Developing Countries and Challenges of Climate Change-related PPMs within WTO Institutions

• Main Author: Bastien, Véronique
• Other Authors: Trebilcock, Michael
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: 0398
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/42681

I present the current state of the debate surrounding processes and production methods (PPMs) related to climate change in the context of developing countries and their relationship with the WTO institutions, both the dispute settlement bodies and the committees. The analysis first outlines a topography of PPMs and three interconnected features: their economic feature, their public policy objectives and their extraterritorial nature. It then examines the consistency of PPMs with the principle of national treatment under WTO law and assesses how the WTO institutions have dealt with the conflictual nexus of climate change and trade as reflected in PPMs. Using three contemporary case studies of climate change related PPMs, I illustrate the effectiveness, and lack thereof, of the WTO institutions on this matter. Lastly, I explore developing countries’ participation in the WTO institutions in regard to climate change PPMs.