Environmental Standards and International Trade: Latin American Stakeholders and the EU Environmental Footprint Program

This paper presents the unique experience of participation of Latin American stakeholders in the definition of European environmental standards, in the context of the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Program for coffee. The PEF Program is an ongoing process and the results will not be available until 2016-2017. The author’s focus is trade-related, and originates in a concern about the competitiveness of Latin American exports on the European market.Section I of this paper is an overall Introduction and deals succinctly with issues such as Trade, Climate Change and Environmental Standards. Section II, presents the European Union (EU) Single Market for Green Products initiative and the European Commission (EC) Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Program; Section III, deals with the PEF Pilot Program for Coffee and Section IV, presents the participation in the PEF process by Latin American stakeholders, through the activities of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Coffee Environmental Footprint Network, as well as some controversial issues raised during this process. Section V, draws some conclusions about this process.