GE calls for clean tech free trade deal

A senior executive at engineering giant General Electric yesterday called on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to act now to counter emerging protectionist measures that are hampering the development of the global clean tech industry.

Speaking at a WTO energy conference in Geneva, Thaddeus Burns, senior counsel for intellectual property and trade at the engineering giant, argued that there was an urgent need for a free trade deal for environmental technologies.

He said that a deal should be negotiated separate to the Doha trade talks, which have been deadlocked for eight years, and should be modelled on the multi-lateral trade agreements for the IT industry, which have effectively eradicated duties on a wide range of IT and communications products.

"We believe that some kind of multilateral agreement... could be something that would be very useful for spurring the diffusion of green technology, both in the form of goods and services," Burns said.

He cited research from GE showing that wind turbines face average import tariffs of 7.5 per cent globally, ranging from 14 per cent in Brazil and eight per cent in China to 2.7 per cent in the EU and 1.3 per cent in the US.

Increasingly popular "buy domestic" policies have also hampered clean tech development, Burns argued, citing the example of American rules that mean GE hydroelectric technology manufactured in Canada cannot be used in the US.

The company is mounting a concerted campaign against emerging clean tech protectionist measures, with vice chairman John Krenicki telling the Financial Times earlier this week that the company was increasingly concerned that clean tech stimulus packages were being used to protect domestic industries at the expense of more efficient imported technologies.

Fears are also mounting that any international climate deal agreed in Cope nhagen later this year could lead to trade wars, as countries seek to erect trade barriers and carbon tariffs against any countries that fail to sign up to binding emission targets.

WTO director general Pascal Lamy attempted to downplay such fears, suggesting that there was no reason for any Copenhagen Treaty to conflict with existing trade rules.