On November 4, 2021, in a press release, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced that the US and China joined the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD) initiative as co-sponsors. This initiative “seeks to promote transparency and information sharing, identifying areas for future work within the WTO…[and] to support technical assistance and capacity building needs, particularly for least-developed countries, and to work on deliverables for environmental sustainability in the various areas of the WTO.” It was launched in November 2020, and 56 WTO members participate in the discussions.

The press release can be found here:

https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/tessd_04nov21_e.htm

More information on the TESSD initiative can be found here:

https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/archive_e/tessd_arc_e.htm