Joint Statement: Signature of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability

We, the Ministers for Trade from Costa Rica, Iceland, New Zealand and Switzerland today signed the Agreement on Climate, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS).

We recall earlier Ministerial statements from Geneva (15 June 2022(external link)), Paris (6 October 2021(external link)), and Davos (24 January 2020(external link)) as well as the Joint Leaders' Statement(external link)launching the ACCTS in September 2019 in New York, and those issued by Climate Ministers in Spain (10 December 2019(external link)), Glasgow (12 November 2021(external link)) and Sharm-el-Sheikh (17 November 2022(external link)), as well as the most recent announcement of conclusion of negotiations on 2 July 2024(external link).

The ACCTS was conceived out of the idea that the policy levers needed to drive the transition to low-emissions, climate-resilient and sustainable economies must and can include trade policy, rules and architecture.

From the beginning of negotiations, we committed to an agreement that is a first-of-its-kind and forward-looking.

The ACCTS is a ground-breaking trade agreement bringing together the interrelated elements of climate change, sustainability and trade. It will include ambitious and environmentally credible lists on environmental goods and services, removing tariffs on over 300 environmental goods and including more than 100 environmental and environmentally-related services, facilitating market access and providing greater certainty for suppliers on a non-discriminatory basis.

At the same time, the ACCTS supports Parties' shared commitments to uphold the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and goals of the Paris Agreement, to achieve net zero emissions and promote sustainable development.

The ACCTS includes innovative principles-based guidelines for voluntary eco-labelling programmes to better support consumers to choose products based on their environmental credentials, promote trade in sustainable products and avoid the inadvertent creation of barriers to trade.

We have established the first international fossil fuel subsidy definition, building on existing approaches to defining subsidies at the World Trade Organisation, alongside a framework of prohibitions, scheduling, exceptions and transparency to address harmful fossil fuel subsidies.

This also includes a first-of-its-kind and innovative tool - the Standard Carbon Rate Measurement - reflecting the impact of climate policy and carbon pricing on the costs of fossil fuels.

The ACCTS is designed to be a living agreement. As an open plurilateral agreement it will grow through the participation of new members and the introduction of new trade policy actions over time.

To encourage the accession of new Parties, we have included a temporary special mechanism to motivate other economies to join ACCTS early. There will also be opportunities for new Parties to contribute to the further development of the agreement under its review mechanism.

The ACCTS is an example of open and flexible trade agreements in action; compliant with WTO rules and other international agreements and supportive of multilateral rules and institutions. Following signature today, we are committed to ensuring the ACCTS is ratified and implemented as soon as possible.

The text of the ACCTS is now publicly available, and we encourage other members of the World Trade Organisation to consider joining us in demonstrating how trade rules and practices can meaningfully contribute to our shared climate and sustainability goals.

Manuel Tovar
Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica

Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland

Todd McClay
Minister for Trade of New Zealand

Guy Parmelin
Minister for Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland

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