Washington, DC - Today United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk welcomed the launch of the Environmental Goods and Services Information Exchange (EGSIE). The EGSIE is an innovative new website that will promote information-sharing and collaboration related to cutting edge environmental technologies in the Asia-Pacific region and will also promote the dissemination of such technologies globally. The impending launch of the website was announced at last week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings in Singapore.
"This website will help all APEC economies to better understand this growing industry and pursue the region's green growth objectives," said Ambassador Kirk. "It will also serve as an excellent resource for our businesses - small and large - to learn about this dynamic marketplace and help them to participate in it by gaining a better understanding of the market drivers and barriers that exist."
The new website, http://egs.apec.org, is a joint project sponsored by the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Today, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers endorsed the website and encouraged all economies to contribute to it. APEC Ministers also endorsed a multi-year work program on environmental goods and services that will focus on promoting greater dissemination and utilization of environmental goods and services in the region, in particular through identifying and addressing market access barriers to this important sector.
APEC economies exported over $332 billion in environmental goods in 2008, and exports of APEC economies have been growing at an average annual rate of 10 percent since 2004. APEC economies trade in environmental goods represents nearly half of global trade in this sector.
