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Australia played an active role during the review period on the plurilateral Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), including as Chair of those negotiations. The EGA’s aim was to eliminate WTO bound tariffs on an extensive list of environmental goods. Australia views the EGA as important in promoting the trade, uptake and production of goods and new technologies that help address environmental objectives, including climate change. The EGA has not been finalized and the last negotiations took place in November-December 2016.

Import prohibitions and restrictions in the form of generally strict quarantine or technical requirements have remained in place to preserve, inter alia, human, animal or plant life or health, the environment, safety, or security. These are considered necessary to meet Australia's relevant appropriate level of protection (ALOP). (...)

Table 3.11 Exports subject to licensing or other restrictions, 2019
Item: Endangered animal and plant species
Justification: International commitment (CITES)
Measure: CITES-listed species generally require an export permit issued by the Department of the Environment and Energy. Further regulations or restrictions, administered by the Department for Agriculture, apply to exports of live animals and plants.

Australia ratified both the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement and the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources of the South Pacific Ocean in March 2012 (entry in force June 2012 and August 2012 respectively), and was in the process of ratifying the Food and Agriculture Organization Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Agreement (signed on 27 April 2010) at end-2014. Other activities during the review period included participating in bilateral cooperation with Indonesia, and continued engagement with northern neighbours as part of the Regional Plan of Action to promote responsible fishing practices and combat IUU fishing in the Southeast Asian region.

(…) In general, the decline in labour productivity seen since the early 2000s has been due to the lag between capital investment and the corresponding increase in output and the depletion of high-quality natural resources.

Table A3. 2 Subsidies notified under WTO provisions, 2011/12 and 2012/13
($A)
FEDERAL PROGRAMMES
Environment
- Clean Technology Investment Program (CTIP): Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: 16 February 2012 to 30 June 2019
- Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program (CTFFIP): Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: 16 February 2012 to 30 June 2018
- Sustainable Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program (SRWUIP)

Innovation
- Clean Technology Innovation Program: Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: 6 July 2012 to 22 October 2013; 2011/12: n.a.; 2012/23: 2,200,000

Passenger motor vehicles
- Ford Australia Environmental Grant: Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: 30 March 2012 to 31 May 2015; 2011/12: ..a; 2012/13: ..a
- Green Car Innovation Fund (GCIF); Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: 2009/10 to January 2011; 2011/12: 125,000,000; 2012/13: 47,500,000

South Australia
- Business Sustainability Alliance – Energy Efficiency Program: Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: Completed in June 2013
- Cleantech Partnering Program:Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: Completed on 30 June 2013

Victoria
- Beyond Waste Fund: Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: Was to conclude in September 2014; 2012/13: 649,398
- Driving Investment for New Recycling: Type of subsidy: Grants; Duration: Until June 2015; 2011/12: 262,820; 2012/13: 734,268

(…) Since 1 July 2012, summaries of AIP (Australian Industry Participation) Plans have been published on line to increase transparency. Companies receiving over $A 20 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (section 4.3.2) may be required to prepare and report on an AIP Plan as an investment condition. (...)

State/territory land use controls apply to port development and their adjacent land areas, including road and rail access. Commonwealth port related activities include: environmental assessments on port developments; safety and security matters to detect and deter the unlawful movement of goods and people across the border; and implementing Australia's international maritime obligations as they relate to ports.

Australia's latest annual Tax Expenditures Statement identifies 337 (about 270 in 2005) tax expenditures provided in 2009 by the Commonwealth Government to benefit a specified activity or class of taxpayer: including 4 to natural resources and 5 (as from 1 July 2011) to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, whose introduction was deferred until after the end of the current Kyoto Period in 2012 and when certain international conditions are met, while tax expenditures for fuel and energy are to decline progressively as a result of the phasing-in of an excise on alternative fuels from 1 July 2011 and the abolition of the exemption from crude oil excise of condensate as of 13 May 2008

Australia’s FTAs have secured significant new market access and rules in evolving areas of trade like e-commerce, intellectual property, trade and environment, SOEs, and investment liberalization over the review period.