Free trade proposal 'would boost green technologies'

A joint US-European Union proposal to liberalise trade in green goods and services such as solar panels would boost the availability of technology to battle global warming, a top US trade official said today.

Susan Schwab, US trade representative, said on the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Indonesia that developing countries have an average of 9 per cent tariffs on a list of 43 such goods and services.