Bridges Trade BioRes

Volume 2 • Number 19 11th December 2002

  • INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AMONG KEY ISSUES AS WTO DEADLINES LOOM
    INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AMONG KEY ISSUES AS WTO DEADLINES LOOM WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi at the meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee on 4-6 December gave a "mixed" assessment of progress in the current round of negotiations, calling on governments to show "courage and leadership now" if the round is to be completed as scheduled on 1…
  • DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RAISE BIODIVERSITY CONCERNS IN WIPO
    DEVELOPING COUNTRIES RAISE BIODIVERSITY CONCERNS IN WIPO The WIPO [World Intellectual Property Organization] Standing Committee on the Law of Patents met on 25-29 November in Geneva to continue negotiations on a possible treaty covering substantive patent law at the international level. Among the issues discussed were proposals by several developing countries calling for flexibility to implement…
  • TRADE ISSUES SPILLING OVER INTO WETLAND NEGOTIATIONS
    TRADE ISSUES SPILLING OVER INTO WETLAND NEGOTIATIONS On 18-26 November, Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands met in Valencia, Spain, for their eighth Conference (COP-8) to discuss "Wetlands: Water, Life, and Culture". Trade-related considerations, while not traditionally discussed widely within Rasmar, penetrated many of the negotiations, including on agriculture, traditional activities…
  • In Brief
    EUROPEAN AG AND ENVIRONMENT COUNCILS AGREE ON GMO REGULATIONS The European Councils of Agriculture and Environment Ministers, meeting on 28 November and 9 December respectively, reached political agreement on the European Commission’s proposed labelling and traceability regulations, despite objections by Luxembourg, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands. Specifically, Ministers agreed on a 0.5…
  • In Brief
  • In Brief
    EUROPEAN AG AND ENVIRONMENT COUNCILS AGREE ON GMO REGULATIONS The European Councils of Agriculture and Environment Ministers, meeting on 28 November and 9 December respectively, reached political agreement on the European Commission’s proposed labelling and traceability regulations, despite objections by Luxembourg, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands. Specifically, Ministers agreed on a 0.5…
  • Events
  • Events
    For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar. Please bear in mind that dates and times of WTO meetings are often changed, and that the WTO does not always announce the important informal meetings of the different bodies. Coming up in the next two weeks 9-13 December,…
  • Resources
  • Resources
    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 Heike Baumüller. "The precautionary principle and ecological hazards of genetically modified organisms" by Mario Giampietro in AMBIO 31 (6, 2002). This paper makes three points relevant…