On September 7, 2012, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a press release announcing a trade and investment agreement with the Asia-Pacific region as a result from the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which will reduce tariffs on a list of environmental goods to five percent or less by 2015.
The USTR explains in the press release that "the APEC List of Environmental Goods includes a wide range of core products in the sector, including renewable and clean energy technologies, wastewater treatment equipment, air pollution control technologies, and environmental monitoring and assessment equipment. Tariffs on some of these products in the region are currently as high as 35 percent."
The release also notes other achievements of the agreement, including:
- A comprehensive approach to improve supply chain performance in the region
- A commitment to work towards prevention of local content requirement in the region
- To further promote market-driven non-discriminatory innovation policy
- To increase transparency and due process in APEC economies
According to the notice, the U.S. currently exports over $1 billion of environmental goods to the Asia-Pacific region, which are subject to tariffs above 5 percent.
The full text of the press release is available online here.
