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TSUNAMI DISASTER MEETS TRADE, ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSES
TSUNAMI DISASTER MEETS TRADE, ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSES Pledges of aid and debt relief for countries affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 have been followed by calls for special trade measures to help them rebuild their economies. At the same time, experts have noted the role that environmental factors such as mangrove forests…
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SIDS: MAURITIUS MEETING ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADE ISSUES
SIDS: MAURITIUS MEETING ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE, TRADE ISSUES Climate change and trade topped the agenda at a recent meeting on small island developing states (SIDS), held from 10-14 January at Port Louis, Mauritius. The International Meeting (IM) to Review the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS, which saw…
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WTO DEBATES SUBSIDIES; EU SETTLES ON 2005 QUOTAS
WTO DEBATES SUBSIDIES; EU SETTLES ON 2005 QUOTAS In its first submission to the WTO Negotiations Rules negotiations on fisheries subsidies, the US lent its support to the comprehensive approach to eliminating fishing subsidies promoted by the Friends of Fish, positioning itself against countries such as Japan and Korea who want to move more carefully…
- In Brief
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Indigenous Communities Reach Landmark Potato Agreement
Six indigenous communities from Peru reached a groundbreaking agreement with the Lima-based International Potato Center (IPC) that recognises the communities’ rights over the native potato strains and associated traditional knowledge. This “is a first legal sign of the restoration of rights that indigenous people once had,” said Alejandro Argumedo from the Association for Nature and…
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EU Considers Timber Certification Scheme
At the 22 December Council of agriculture ministers, EU members debated a European Commission draft regulation that would create a voluntary certification scheme for timber imports into the EU. Proposed under the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) adopted by the European Commission in May 2003 (see BRIDGES Weekly, 23 May 2003) and augmented…
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Indian Patent Act Revisions Raise Farmers' Concerns
A decree issued by the Indian government to bring the country into compliance with its obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has raised concerns that it could take control of seeds away from farmers and put access to life-saving drugs for diseases such as AIDS out of the reach of…
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ISAAA Report: Biotech Crops Up by 20 Percent
The global area of biotech crops continued to grow for the ninth consecutive year in 2004 with a yearly growth rate of 20 percent compared with 15 percent in 2003, according to the annual report of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) released on 12 January. The estimated global area of…
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Millennium Project Calls for Balancing Trading System
The UN Millennium Project — an independent advisory project commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to propose the best strategies for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — has reproached the global trading system for being “unbalanced against the interests of developing countries”. The group’s final report, entitled “A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium…
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Public Hearing Tackles REACH Legislation
Ahead of the first reading of the EU’s proposed system of Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) in the European Parliament, some 1000 participants from civil society groups, industry, journalists, Members of the European Parliament (MEP) and the public came together at a public hearing on 19 January to debate the workability of the…
- Events
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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 18-22 January,…
- Resources
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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. 2005 GENEVA DECLARATION ON TRADE & ENVIRONMENT. By EcoLomics International, January 2005. This declaration proposes a ten-point action plan for the WTO aimed at…