-
AFRICAN SUMMIT PLACES FISH HIGH ON POLITICAL AGENDA
Fish experts and leaders from 26 African countries met for the Fish For All Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, from 22 to 25 August to assess the present situation of fisheries and aquaculture in the region and to determine a shared strategy for strengthening the sector in the future. The summit — jointly organised by the…
-
GMO UPDATE: GHANA, EUROPE, MEXICO, CHINA, NEW ZEALAND
GMO UPDATE: GHANA, EUROPE, MEXICO, CHINA, NEW ZEALAND Ghana presents biotech legislation On 16 August, the Ghanaian Ministry of the Environment and Science presented draft biosafety legislation to the national legislature that would require all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to pass through vigorous inspections to ensure that they conformed to the country’s regulations and standards.…
-
BEEF HORMONES DISPUTE: WTO OPENS PROCEEDINGS TO PUBLIC
BEEF HORMONES DISPUTE: WTO OPENS PROCEEDINGS TO PUBLIC On 2 August, the two WTO panels hearing the EU’s challenge against continued retaliatory sanctions on its exports imposed by the US and Canada respectively in the long standing Beef Hormones dispute announced that their proceedings would be open to the public. This development, the first of its…
-
Contradictory Rulings Trigger Confusion over Softwood Lumber
On 10 August, a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Committee ruled that Canadian softwood lumber practices did not justify US anti-dumping duties on Canadian exports. Three weeks later, a World Trade Organisation (WTO) interim ruling was released on 29 August which supports the American position that the anti-dumping duties that have been imposed on…
- In Brief
-
EU and Morocco Strike New Fisheries Deal
On 28 July, the EU and Morocco signed a new fisheries partnership agreement after six years of negotiations. The deal, which is worth 144 million euros, will allow 119 European trawlers, mainly Spanish, to enter one of the world’s richest fishing grounds off Morocco’s Atlantic Coast. The final deal is far less extensive than the…
-
WTO Negotiators Get Ready for Hong Kong Countdown
Following their failure to meet an end-July target date for reaching agreement on certain key issues in the ongoing Doha Round negotiations, Geneva-based trade diplomats are girding themselves for what promises to be an intensive three months of discussions in the run-up to the WTO’s Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December. Early this year, Members…
-
International Incident Emerges Over Amazonian River Fish
An unlikely suspect lies at the centre of what has been labeled an “international incident” between Colombia and Brazil over their shared Amazonian resources: the silver arowana fish. While Colombia harvests the silver arowana for display in aquariums, it is a significant food source for communities along the Amazon basin in Brazil. Because the fish…
-
Drafting Begins of Transfer Agreement for Genetic Resources
A Contact Group established by the Interim Committee of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) at their 18-22 July meeting in Hammamet, Tunisia, agreed on the outline of the standard contract for access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The contract, known as the Standard Material Transfer…
-
NAFTA Tribunal Rules Against Canadian Methanol Producer
On 9 August, a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tribunal released its findings that dismissed a Canadian methanol producer’s US$970 million lawsuit against the United States and ordered the company to pay US$4 million in legal fees. In the lawsuit, Vancouver-based Methanex Corp. asserted that because they supply a key ingredient of “methyl tertiary…
-
Study Points to Growing Internet Trade in Endangered Animals
The Internet is becoming the key market for illegal poachers of endangered wildlife species around the world, according to a recently released study by the International Fund for Animal Welfare UK (IFAW). In the report, “Caught in the Web: Wildlife Trade on the Internet“, IFAW found 146 live primates and nearly 9000 wildlife products up…
- 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 5 September,…
- 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 MAP-BASED SEQUENCE OF THE RICE GENOME. By the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP), August 2005. IRGSP has published a complete, finished-quality,…