If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or review by the BRIDGES staff to Sarah Mohan.
THE TRADE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF ECOLABELS: ASSESSMENT AND RESPONSE. By Tom Rotherham (UNEP, November 2005). This paper reviews what is known about ecolabelling as an environmental policy tool and as a potential trade barrier. It finds that two problems are particularly worthy of attention, namely the lack of checks or balances in regard to the proliferation of ecolabels, including the lack of any way to harmonise existing and new ones; and the cost of conformity assessment (often the most significant barrier for developing country producers), which is related to the proliferation of ecolabels. It finds that the spread of environmental requirements can be expected to continue to increase due to the actions of private market actors, particularly through supply chain contracts and big retail chains.
REGULATING THE USE OF VOLUNTARY ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS WITHIN THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION LEGAL REGIME: MAKING A CASE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. By Samir R. Gandhi, Journal of World Trade 39(5), 2005. This article looks at whether the WTO dispute settlement mechanism offers developing countries a remedy against the misuse of NGO standards; and if not, then what strategies need to be adopted by developing countries at the WTO to address their concerns.
INTERNATIONAL LAW RELATED TO PRECAUTIONARY APPROACHES TO NATIONAL REGULATION OF PLANT IMPORTS. By Peter T. Jenkins, Journal of World Trade 39(5), 2005. This article addresses international law as it relates to attempts by countries to strengthen their national laws regulating the import of live plants from other countries. This is emerging as a lively area of policy discussion as countries seek stronger protections for their environmental and economic interests, particularly from the weed, pest, and pathogen risks of imported non-native plants and plant parts. A need exists to reconcile those aspects of the international legal regime that promote a relatively unrestricted plant trade with the aspects that allow trade restrictions in order to accommodate a country’s acceptable level of risk from imported weeds, pests, and pathogens.
SOFTWARE AND SEEDS: LESSONS IN COMMUNITY SHARING. By Roberto Verzola (GRAIN, October 2005). In many countries, control over information has become a vital issue. An underlying aspect of this control has been the use - or threat of use - of force to establish control. The aim is often to prevent information from being freely exchanged, creating an artificial scarcity that keeps information prices high. The fight to protect such freedoms is being fought out in many different arenas. This paper explores the synergies, similarities and differences between those trying to protect the freedom of innovators in the worlds of software and seeds.
THE FAO SEED TREATY: FROM FARMERS’ RIGHTS TO BREEDERS’ PRIVILEGES by GRAIN. By GRAIN, October 2005. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture - sometimes called the ’seed treaty’ - was adopted by UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) member states in 2001 and came into force in 2004. Governments that signed on are now working out implementation details. Far from its roots in the struggle to assert farmers’ rights as a counterforce to breeders’ rights, this paper says that the Treaty has ended up being mainly about granting new privileges to industry.
MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MNISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF ECOWAS STATES ON BIOTECHNOLOGY. By Seydou Traore, June 2005. This document describes the main conclusions and recommendations that were reached June 24, 2005 at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministerial Conference on Biotechnology in Bamako, Mali. The conference recommended that within two years: 1) increased investments should be made through public-private partnerships in biotechnology tools, especially tissue culture, use of molecular markers, use of diagnostic tools, and the development of vaccines; 2) ECOWAS member states should ratify the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and adopt national biosafety policies; and 3) the ECOWAS regional strategic plan on biosafety should be implemented and a regional supporting structure created for its implementation. The conference made further recommendations to be realised in 5 years and addressed intellectual property issues.
THE GLOBAL MARKET FOR BIOENERGY BETWEEN CLIMATE PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY. Edited by Jürgen Maier and Gerald Knauf (German NGO Forum on Environment and Development, November 2005). This paper aims to form an initial position on the topic of bioenergy from the viewpoint of environmental and developmental NGOs in Germany. In this phase, the discussion has an intentional German/European bias, so as to better understand and analyze the role of a potentially bioenergy importing region. However, some important questions remain unanswered for the time being as there has been little practical experience to learn from and the dialogue on sustainable bioenergy trade is still in its infancy.
BANS, TESTS AND ALCHEMY: FOOD SAFETY STANDARDS AND THE UGANDAN FISH EXPORT INDUSTRY DIIS WORKING PAPER. By Stefano Ponte (Danish Institute for International Studies, 2005). This paper is part of a series of studies examining the symbolic and concrete impacts of Northern countries’ food safety, quality management and sustainability standards on African fisheries. The paper uses the fish industry in Uganda as a case study in which the European Union banned imports on the grounds of food safety without scientific proof. Only by fixing this system of regulations and inspections, and by performing the ritual of laboratory testing did the Ugandan industry regain its status as a ’safe’ source of fish.