ISSU ES AT THE C OU NTRY LEV EL: A DIAGNOSTIC FR AMEW OR K
property, and intellectual property is critical for transitioning to a green economy. The WTO (through its dispute settlement mechanism) offers a legal avenue for enforcing and fulfilling international environmental-climate treaties. WTO legal jurisprudence is critical for ensuring that progressive green jurisprudence becomes part of the domestic legal policy framework and would bolster efforts to reinforce the national legal framework for purposes of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Enhance participation in subregional and regional trade organizations and agreements to which Ethiopia is a party The multilateral trade system (underpinned by the WTO) has generally performed poorly in the liberalization of environmental goods and services, as evidenced by the stalled progress of the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations. Regional economic organizations, specifically Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the EU, are making significantly more progress with regard to liberalization. The complications at the WTO are exacerbated by the current trade tensions among the most influential members of the organization. Additionally, regional economic organizations afford unique opportunities to diversify both goods and services (specifically, changes in comparative advantages in climate-related trade). In this regard, AfCFTA provides the greatest prospects for broadening or refocusing the spectrum of export markets as well as for redirecting exports to new markets where value added production is in greatest demand. Ethiopia’s main trade partners are non-African states, and AfCFTA presents huge opportunities for improving market access, diversification, terms of trade, and industrialization as well as less stringent environmental and climate requirements than Ethiopia’s main trade partners (the EU particularly).2 For these reasons, enhanced subregional and regional trade offers significant opportunities. Even outside of AfCFTA, the manufacturing content of Africa’s exports to Africa is much higher (46.3 percent) than that of its exports to the world (26.7 percent) (UNCTAD 2019, 20). In the same vein, even if primary production in the agriculture sector experiences climate-related declines, transitioning from exports of primary products to higher value added downstream products can maintain sectoral employment, revenue levels, and the overall value of sectoral exports, even as primary productivity declines (UNCTAD 2021, 41). Closely monitor developments in the environment-climate requirements of its main trading partners Monitoring would allow Ethiopia to anchor its own trade policy or trade legal framework strategically in accordance with that of its main trade partners (the EU and the United States), which are increasingly interested in environmental sustainability. For example, the exports of low- and middle-income countries that implement a national carbon tax system will be exempt from carbon border fees imposed by other countries (UNCTAD 2021, 38).
Notes 1. Six African countries are among the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies: Rwanda (8.7 percent), Ethiopia (7.4 percent), Côte d’Ivoire (7.4 percent), Ghana (7.1 percent), Tanzania (6.8 percent), and Benin (6.7 percent) (AfDB 2020, 15).
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