Environmental Requirements and Market Access: Turning Challenges into Opportunities

CBTF Symposium's Summary, 3 October 2007, Geneva

The symposium on Environmental Requirements and Market Access: Turning Challenges into Opportunities was organised under the auspices of the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF). It was held on 3 October 2007 at the International Conference Centre Geneva.

This symposium's summary sets out the main issues and findings arising from the meeting. Without attempting to itemise all the important contributions made, it provides an overview of the main issues raised by participants and outlines suggestions and recommendations for future work, notably in the field of capacity building. It does not represent a consensus document by governments and other participants attending the symposium. Rather, it is offered as a source of information, which summarises important discussion points on which the CBTF team will continue to seek input and guidance as it prepares for the third phase of the CBTF initiative. This summary is organised according to the three main sessions of the symposium outlined above. All documents related to the CBTF symposium, including speakers' presentations, agenda and participants' list, are available at:

http://www.unep-unctad.org/cbtf/events/geneva5.asp