The Mission hosted a virtual event on Circular Economy and Services trade.
To bring new perspectives to the discussion on Circular Economy and trade, the Permanent Mission of Finland, the Services and Investment Division of the World Trade Organization, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) hosted a joint webinar on the role of services in the transition to Circular Economy on March 4, 2021.
The event was part of the WTO’s Simply Services Speaker Series, which is an informal platform for the exchange of knowledge and information on trade in services. Open to all delegates and the Secretariat, it regularly convenes services experts to the WTO to share the latest information on trends in services trade. Read more about Simply Services here(Link to another website.).
The webinar also served a publishing event of the recent report, Trading Services for a Circular Economy(Link to another website.), by Sitra and the IISD. Based on a survey and in-depth interviews, the report aims at filling knowledge gaps around the role of services trade in a circular economy transition, taking into account the impact of digitalization, identifying trade barriers and suggesting policy options to reduce the challenges faced by companies.
The distinguished speakers of the event included Dr. Saara Tamminen, Leading Specialist at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra; Ms. Bezawit Eshetu, Ethiopia Country Representative and Executive Team Member of the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN), Mr. Joost de Kluijver, Founder of Closing the Loop; Ms. Marie Isabelle Pellan, Counsellor at the Services and Investment Division of the WTO, and Mr. Shunta Yamaguchi, Policy Analyst at the OECD. The event was moderated by Ms. Alice Tipping, Lead at the IISD and co-author of the report Trading Services for a Circular Economy.
In her welcome remarks, Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi (Finland) briefed the audience about Finland’s aim to become the world's first fossil-free welfare state and carbon-neutrality by 2035. These highly ambitious goals underpin policy across all sectors – including trade policy. Ambassador Kauppi also described how the Finnish government has outlined that the recovery measures must contribute to Finland’s long-term objectives of building a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable society and support transition to Circular Economy. The government has recently placed Circular Economy into the very core of the economic and competitiveness policy. In the case of Finland, services comprise approximately 30 percent of exports, and transition to Circular economy will highlight the importance of services. Ambassador described how the crisis provides a chance to shift gears in advancing the much needed systemic paradigm shift, which will build long-term resilience, unlock significant business and economic opportunities and provide environmental and societal benefits. Finland sees the trading system as a key part of the implementing framework, which should support and enable this just, fair and inclusive transition to Circular Economy.
Dr. Saara Tamminen set the scene by introducing the concept of Circular Economy, various business models related to circularity and the roles both trade and services play in Circular Economy. During the discussion, Dr. Tamminen presented the recent study, its main findings, the role of MSMEs revealed by the survey and the interlinkages between Circular Economy-related goods and services.
Circular Economy is nothing new to developing countries, as Ms. Bezawit Eshetu from the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN) described. Ms. Eshetu explained the relevance of Circular Economy and especially the services sector for developing countries and the work done by the ACEN with the aim of supporting circularity and transition to Circular Economy in Africa. Ms. Eshetu also discussed the special aspects, challenges and opportunities related to the Circular Economy and the services sector from a developing country’s perspective as well as the potential linked to the MSMEs. Ms. Eshetu described customer demand as the main driving force and called for harmonized standards, coherent rules and cooperation among different actors, highlighting e.g the active role of the European Union.
Mr. Joost de Kluijver, Founder of Closing the Loop, shared the story and experiences of his company, which offers a closed loop service for workplace electronics. The company was founded in 2012 with the aim to make the electronic industry aware of the opportunities of pragmatic circularity and the impact of e-waste. Since then, the company has developed a successful business model and saved millions of scrap devices from ending up in the dump in Africa and giving hundreds of thousands of gadgets a new life. Mr. de Kluijver discussed for opportunities of circularity for the MSMEs, how the trading system could better support businesses in integrating circularity into their business model as well as the challenges faced, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. Marie Isabelle Pellan highlighted environmental goods and services as one area that can positively impact CE objectives and explained the scope of the environmental services sector, the reasons behind interest towards environmental services trade and the discussions which have taken place at the WTO. Ms. Pellan also described the opportunities and challenges related to tacking trade barriers in goods and services in an integrated manner, which the report suggests due to the synergies that exist between goods trade and services trade.
Mr. Shunta Yamaguchi focused on the potential next steps from the trading system’s perspective, as identified by the study. The study fills a knowledge gap but also points to needs for further research to better understand how trade policy can support a shift to a more circular economy, how the trade barriers identified by the companies can be tackled and where there is room and need for international cooperation.
The interactive discussion with the participants spanned over a wide range of issues, from Circular Economy and trade to trade barriers, opportunities, the importance of the MSMEs and the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic. The recording of the event can be found here.
The event took place on the eve of the first virtual meeting of the structured discussions on trade and environmental sustainability (TESSD), which took place on March 5 2021 at the WTO. Finland has been actively advancing discussions on trade and environment at the WTO.
Presentations:
Saara Tamminen: Trading Services for a Circular Economy