Trade in Environmental Services and Environmental Performance

Nada Maamoun (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
Adriana Espes Pizarro (University of Hamburg)

Abstract

In recent years, international trade treaties have emerged as a catalyst of commitments in environmental protection. International trade thrives as a bargaining chip, being the EU one of the main promoters of using trade as a method for monitoring climate policies beyond its borders. At the same time, the region is the world’s largest trader of services. Whereas most of the research focuses on the role of the EU as a pioneer in comprehensive trade agreements —thus on the effects of environmental provisions in its PTAs —this paper seeks to analyze the effects of trade in environmental services between the EU and other countries. The focus lies on the linkages between trade barriers in environmental services and countries’ Environmental Performance Index (EPI). For this purpose, we created an index to measure the degree of liberalization of EU’s partners in FTAs commitments for the environmental services sectors and subsectors. We use this index to identify whether a better access for EU’s environmental services providers has an impact on its partners’ EPI, and thus its environmental sustainability.

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