World Trade Organization (WTO) members participating in the Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade (IDP) explored ways to strengthen policy coherence through collective approaches and improved technical assistance to developing countries such as to support global efforts to reduce plastic waste and achieve a circular plastics economy. To guide further action, participants called for a declaration at the WTO’s Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12).
A group of WTO members launched the IDP in November 2020 to “explore how improved trade cooperation, within the rules and mechanisms of the WTO, could contribute to domestic, regional, and global efforts to reduce plastics pollution and transition to a more circular and environmentally sustainable global plastics economy.” These efforts seek to complement existing international processes. Open to all WTO members, the Informal Dialogue currently has 16 co-sponsors: Australia; Barbados; Cabo Verde; Canada; the Central African Republic; China; Ecuador; Fiji; the Gambia; Jamaica; Kazakhstan; Morocco; New Zealand; Switzerland; Thailand; and the UK. Australia, Barbados, China, Ecuador, Fiji, and Morocco serve as IDP co-coordinators.
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