This publication was commissioned for and forms part of the background documentation for an ad hoc expert group, entitled: “Trade Remedies in Green Sectors: the Case of Renewables”, held in Geneva on 3 and 4 April 2014.

The study and the meeting are part of a larger effort by UNCTAD to analyze issues arising at the interface of trade policy and green economy, more specifically renewables, which is shorthand for goods and services used in conjunction with renewable energy sources.

In recent years, trade remedies – anti-dumping and countervailing duties – have increasingly been directed towards renewables – solar panels, wind turbines and biofuels. A priori, this puts these measures at cross purposes with national and international climate and environment policies.

The geopolitics and political economy are more complicated though. The developed as well as the developing countries are using these measures. And while one can argue that a given amount of environmental expenditure would go further in the absence of trade remedies, it is not clear that the amount of public support would remain at the same level.

There can be little doubt that trade remedies are a sensitive area. Trade remedies may have a significant effect on value and job creation throughout the supply chain as a whole. Trade remedies are bound to have competitive implications. Trade remedies against renewables provide a counterpoint to the initiative to reduce tariffs on environmental goods, particularly since some of the most active users of trade remedies participate in the initiative. Trade remedies shatter the alliances among interest groups. On the dispute settlement front, clearly what we see there is disputes on trade remedies that happen to involve renewables rather than disputes about renewables that happen to involve trade remedies. These disputes are about how trade remedies work and in many ways are a continuation of discussion and negotiations that have been going on for the past 12-13 years about issues such as public interest test, lesser duty etc., which suddenly become relevant again in the context of renewables.

The study is far from an exhaustive examination of these issues, of course. In many areas, the analysis is speculative, aimed at raising questions and suggesting areas where policy makers and analysts may need to consider undertaking further analysis. Whether any given governmental measure is consistent with WTO rules is a highly contextual question that may well depend on the exact design features of that particular measure, and its broader context – regulatory, technological and commercial. Thus, nothing in this study should be considered as a judgment that any actual measure of any particular government violates WTO rules.

• What are the actual or potential effects of trade remedies involving renewables?

• What kind of conclusions can be drawn from trade remedies cases since 2008? Are there alternative approaches that might lessen the impact of trade remedies on the deployment of renewable energy?

• What is the impact of trade remedies on jobs and value added?

• Are competitors with different supply chain using trade remedy cases to “raid” each other?

• Can aligning the anti-dumping rules with the competition or anti-trust rules help make sure they only remedy truly anti-competitive behavior - as opposed to undesired competition?

• Are there ways of providing more robust, empirically sound and predictable outcomes in trade remedies investigations and better connect trade law to the “real world”?

• Do trade remedies constitute a problem for the liberalization of trade in environmental goods and services?

• How can countries, individually and collectively, manage the interface between two deeply held goals: “fair international trade” and “GHG control”?

These questions still remain open.