Bridges Trade BioRes

Volume 5 • Number 21 25th November 2005

  • FISH @ THE WTO: SUBSIDIES, MARKET ACCESS AND ANTI-DUMPING
    FISH @ THE WTO: SUBSIDIES, MARKET ACCESS AND ANTI-DUMPING As talks heat up in the weeks before the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December, fisheries-related issues have cropped up in draft texts submitted by the chairs of two WTO negotiating groups for inclusion in the draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. The text put forwarded by…
  • FOREST UPDATE: ITTO, UNFF AND FLEG
    FOREST UPDATE: ITTO, UNFF AND FLEG Pressure building for new timber agreement at ITTO Concerns were raised by some members of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) about the decision at the 39th International Tropical Timber Council’s (ITTC-39) meeting in Yokohama, Japan on 7-12 November to include so-called "environmental" elements in the 2006-2007 work programme…
  • WTO: ENVIRONMENT CHAIR SUBMITS DRAFT TEXT FOR HONG KONG MINISTERIAL DECLARATION
    WTO: ENVIRONMENT CHAIR SUBMITS DRAFT TEXT FOR HONG KONG MINISTERIAL DECLARATION Along with the Chairs of other WTO negotiating groups, the Chair of the Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTE-SS), Toufiq Ali of Bangladesh, on 22 November submitted his draft text to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy for the draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration he…
  • In Brief
  • Five Polluting Chemicals to be Considered for Trade Ban
    On 11 November, the persistant organic pollutants review committee (POPRC) agreed to begin a process to assess whether an additional five persistent organic pollutants should be added to the Stockholm Convention’s list of chemicals to be banned from trade. The POPRC, which was created by the last Conference of the Parties to the Convention (see…
  • To Bind or Not to Bind: Climate Change Meeting Considers Future
    Between 28 November and 9 December, the future of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and whether binding targets for cuts in emissions should be continued will be taken up at the Eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP-11) to the Convention in Montreal, Canada. The first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto…
  • Expert Group Indentifies Gaps in Biotech Risk Assessment
    The Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) On Risk Assessment Under The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, meeting on 15-18 November in Rome, Italy, concluded that countries need additional guidance and assistance in order to base their decisions whether to import living modified organisms (LMOs) on an adequate assessment of all the risks. The risk assessment…
  • EU to Establish Free Trade Zone for Fish and Agriculture in Mediterranean
    The European Union started negotiations on 14 November with its Euro-Mediterranean partners to reduce tariffs on imports of fish and agriculture products as planned in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration. Senior officials kicked off the process, which aims to have a EuroMed Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by 2010, at the first meeting of the Follow-up Committee…
  • European Parliament Approves Reach Chemicals Legislation
    The European Parliament on 17 November voted by a significant majority to approve REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), the new European chemicals legislation. The agreement, which was based on a cross-party deal hammered out the week prior to the Parliament vote (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 11 November 2005), includes basic registration requirements for…
  • 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 28 November,…
  • 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 TRADE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF ECOLABELS: ASSESSMENT AND RESPONSE. By Tom Rotherham (UNEP, November 2005). This paper reviews what is known about ecolabelling…