From 28 to 29 September 2026, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) met to advance its discussions on the trade and environment nexus, focusing on interoperability and development aspects of trade-related climate measures. Members also built on the voluntary information-sharing exercise launched earlier this year to enhance transparency of trade and climate measures in the committee. In addition, they were briefed on work undertaken in other international fora and on developments in several member-led environmental initiatives at the WTO.
The chair of the CTE facilitated the regular meeting on 29 September 2026, which was preceded by a thematic session on 28 September 2026.
Thematic session
The CTE’s thematic session on “trade-related climate measures, including interoperability and development aspects” was co-moderated by Norway and Türkiye.
The session sought to move the discussions beyond a general mapping of trade-related climate measures (TrCMs) towards a more operational examination of what interoperability means in practice. The discussion sought to identify where compliance challenges arise for governments and businesses, with a focus on steel, while exploring cooperative solutions and integrating development considerations in regulatory design choices, implementation and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems.
Through expert panel discussions, the session examined the issues and discussed tools, mechanisms and frameworks that could address compliance challenges and increase cooperation, including at the WTO.
The subsequent discussion among members reinforced these themes. Australia and China circulated an informal, non-official document for discussion, proposing ideas on interoperability and possible follow-up in the CTE.
Since November 2023, the CTE has held thematic and interactive sessions on topics of interest to the membership. Previous sessions have addressed topics such as the clean energy transition, sustainable agriculture, trade-related climate measures and technology transfer.
All presentations delivered at this seventh thematic session are accessible at:
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/envir_2809202610_e/envir_2809202610_e.htm
Based on the CTE chair’s proposal, the next CTE thematic session will be held in December 2026, focusing on environmental goods and services, including bio-inputs. This will be followed by a session on the circular economy in February 2027. Co-moderators will help shape these sessions.