Bridges Trade BioRes

Volume 5 • Number 13 8th July 2005

  • DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SPEAK OUT ON ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS
    DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SPEAK OUT ON ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS At a meeting of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment Special (negotiating) Session (CTE-SS) held on 7-8 July in Geneva, developing countries said that development concerns need to be incorporated into negotiating proposals on environmental goods and services and, specifically, that the Committee’s narrow focus thus far on…
  • ITTA: TIMBER NEGOTIATIONS HOLD ON TO COMMODITY FOCUS
    ITTA: TIMBER NEGOTIATIONS HOLD ON TO COMMODITY FOCUS Delegates meeting for the third round of negotiations on a successor pact to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994 (ITTA-1994) in Geneva from 27 June to 1 July failed to agree on a new accord, although they converged increasingly around the idea that the revised ITTA should…
  • G-8 STRESSES URGENCY OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT AGREEING ON CONCRETE ACTION
    G-8 STRESSES URGENCY OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT AGREEING ON CONCRETE ACTION On Friday 8 July, the Group of 8 (G-8) industrialised countries wrapped up their two-day summit at Gleneagles, adopting a communiqué on Climate Change, Energy and Sustainable Development that recognised climate change as a "serious long-term challenge" that needs to be tackled with urgency…
  • In Brief
  • EU-Angolan Fisheries Talks Stall
    On 23 June, Angola announced that negotiations on a fisheries agreement between Angola and the EU had ended as a result of disagreements over Angola’s new Biological and Aquatic Resources Act (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 October 2004). The Angolan Law, which was adopted in October 2004, stipulates that foreign firms can fish in Angolan…
  • Used Tyres: Trash or Trade?
    n a short meeting of the regular session of the Committee on Trade and Environment in the morning of 6 June, Brazil made a lengthy intervention in reaction to the EC’s 20 June request for WTO consultations on a Brazilian ban on imports of used and retreaded tyres (WT/DS332/1, G/L/741). In a statement, supported by…
  • Ozone Meeting Grants Methyl Bromide Exemptions
    An Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, held in Montreal, Canada, on 1 July, agreed to allow thirteen developed nations an exemption for 2006 to use 3,000 tons of ozone-depleting methyl bromide, which was to be banned as of 1 January 2005. The new agreement…
  • Biosafety Regulations Necessary, ECOWAS Hears
    Following criticism from environmental groups after an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) resolution last year called for greater research and investment in biotechnology, participants in this year’s ECOWAS Ministerial Conference on Biotechnology held in Bamoko, Mali, on 21-28 June recognised that biosafety regulations that safeguard human health and the environment need to go…
  • EU Adopts Scheme to Reward Convention Adopters
    EU Member states on 23 June agreed to a new system of trade preferences to grant developing countries’ products enhanced access to the European market. The new system, which is based on a European Commission proposal of 20 October 2004 (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 5 November 2004), narrows the number of programmes to three from…
  • Norway to Establish Agricultural Seed Bank
    On 23 June, Norway announced it will be establishing an agricultural seed bank on its remote Svalbard Islands in the Arctic to support global food security. The goal is to protect valuable food genetic resources against plant diseases and the effects of climate change, wars, natural disasters and other factors that impact on seed biodiversity.…
  • 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 10 July…
  • 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 Sarah Mohan . THE CONTINUED DESTRUCTION OF THE OZONE LAYER - US ABUSE OF METHYL BROMIDE EXEMPTIONS. By Environmental Investigation Agency, June 2005. This report, released…