PART VII: GUIDELINES FOR NATIONAL REPORTING TO CSD VIII RELATED TO TRADE AND INVESTMENT/ECONOMIC GROWTH
Reporting Country: India
Signed by:
Ministry/Department: Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
Date Reported:
In addition to updating the attached information on international cooperation and trade that you have submitted to the earlier sessions of the CSD, please consider the following guidelines in your report:
Please identify any reports that you currently provide to other intergovernmental bodies or Secretariats on issues related to Trade, Investment and Economic Growth. Please note: (i) to whom these reports are made; (ii) the issues covered; and (iii) the Internet address, if applicable, on which the reports may be found.
(i)
- India submits a report on its trade to WTO every four years as part of its trade policy review; and
- Reports to IMF, World Bank.
Decision-making
Please indicate if export-induced increases in production have increased local or national environmental problems ("hot-spots") in your country.
Export, as a percentage of GDP at constant prices is less than 1% in India. Hence, local or national environmental problems in India are more associated with domestic production.
Please indicate if there is an institutional mechanism to identify such "hot spots" in the integration of trade and environment issues.
The Environmental Impact Assessment programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
Please indicate if your national legislation or other regulatory regimes have been changed in response to the possible negative impacts of trade on environment.
The linkage between trade and poverty from the environmental point of view is addressed in a multifunctional manner in India. Environmental requirements in the markets for Indian exports could cause loss of exports. This could be unnecessary especially where there are environmental restrictions based on processes and production methods or based on the precautionary principle and where the measures are susceptible to disguised protectionism. This in turn would make less money available to national policy makers to direct towards environmental protection. Poverty, it is said, is the biggest polluter and this holds particularly true for us, as fund constraints may be one of the major handicaps in addressing environmental problems through appropriate national environmental policy. The inability of the developed world to implement provisions of Agenda 21 in letter and spirit has added to the problems.
Please indicate if your country has agreed to the derogation of any specific environmental legislation or regulation as an inducement to foreign direct investment.
Information
Please indicate how information related to trade, investment and economic growth is made available to potential users. Can it be accessed via the Internet? Please provide the addresses of the national World Wide Web Sites that contain the requisite data.
Overriding issues
According to the multi-year programme of work of the CSD, the overriding issues in each of the CSD sessions are poverty and consumption and production patterns.
Please indicate linkages that have been identified in your country between poverty and trade and investment at both national and international levels.
It need not be emphasized that poverty is intrinsically related to both trade and investment. In the last World Bank meeting in December, 1999 at Seattle, due to lack of understanding of the need of the poverty stricken population by the planners the meeting could not progress further. At the international level linkage between trade and poverty is addressed in India's contribution to the discussions in the CTE of WTO regularly.
Please describe briefly major changes in production and consumption patterns in your country due to increases or decreases in trade, investment and economic growth, and the environmental impacts of those changes.
Trade, as a percentage of GDP, has more or less remained constant at about 20% in India.
Other issues
Please identify any other major issues related to trade, investments and economic growth that are important to your country.
*****