Trade and Biodiversity

Commerce et biodiversité

Cecilia Bellora (), Jean-Christophe Bureau, Basak Bayramoglu, Estelle Gozlan and Sebastien Jean

Abstract: International trade has a direct impact on EU biodiversity, imported invasive species and pathogens, being an example. Trade also impacts global biodiversity, for instance through the ‘virtual' water, land, and deforestation contained in EU imports. Economic theory shows that trade with countries that fail to protect a renewable resource can be detrimental for all. Protecting global biodiversity calls for a variety of instruments, at the EU border as well as in the provisions of preferential agreements. The EU already includes biodiversity-re lated non-trade provisions in trade agreements, but these provisions are not legally binding and hardly effective. This is partly explained by the complexity of the issues posed by biodiversity: since there is no simple synthetic indicator, policy instruments are difficult to enforce. However, an effort to specify measurable and verifiable commitments is needed; more binding mechanisms, along with transparent and automatic sanctions in case of non-compliance should be considered.

Keywords: International trade; Biodiversity; Tariff; Trade agreement; Tax Incidence; Invasive species; Commerce inernational; Biodiversité; Espèce invasive; Tarif douanier; Taxes; Accord commercial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-int
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02887592
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Published in [Contract] PE 603.494, European Parliament, Policy Department for External Relations, Directorate General for External Policies of the Union; European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA). 2020, 44 p

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02887592

DOI: 10.2861/44961

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