Bridges Trade BioRes

Volume 5 • Number 3 18th February 2005

  • BIODIVERSITY MEETING BALANCES SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL GOALS
    BIODIVERSITY MEETING BALANCES SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL GOALS Negotiators at the 10th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held from 7-11 February in Bangkok, Thailand, struggled to keep high-priority technical decisions on biological diversity at the top of an agenda threatened by political manoeuvring.…
  • CHILE LAUNCHES WTO CHALLENGES AGAINST EU SALMON SAFEGUARDS
    CHILE LAUNCHES WTO CHALLENGES AGAINST EU SALMON SAFEGUARDS On 8 February, Chile submitted an official request for WTO consultations to the European Commission regarding new EU safeguard measures on farmed salmon that entered into force on 6 February. The measures, which impose minimum import prices and tariff quotas, were implemented in response to pressure from…
  • In Brief
  • Europe Looks Beyond Kyoto as Protocol Enters Into Force
    The 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) entered into force on 16 February (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 19 November 2004). The event was celebrated around the world both by governments and civil society groups, despite the fact that some significant polluters — such as the US — have…
  • US Questions EU on Wood Pallet Restrictions
    US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick urged European governments in a 9 February letter to suspend a new rule, scheduled to go into effect on 1 March, that would require wood pallets used to import many goods into the EU to be bark-free. The EU had approved the new regulation last October in an effort to…
  • DNA 'Barcoding' Project Launched
    The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) held their first international conference from 7 to 9 February where they launched an initiative to create a database that will enable identification of all plant and animal species based on a portion of their DNA. This process, dubbed ‘DNA Barcoding’, uses a DNA sequence from an…
  • WTO Members Meet for First Cotton Talks
    The WTO Cotton Sub-committee, set up in the July framework adopted by WTO Members last year (Bridges Trade BioRes, 6 August 2004), met for the first time on 11 February. The Sub-committee agreed to focus on assessing progress in the agriculture negotiations and including regular updates on developmental aspects of the cotton initiative to ensure…
  • 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 21-23 February,…
  • 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. SHRIMP’S PASSPORT: HOW INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGENCIES MONITOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE SEAFOOD. By Public Citizen, February 2005. The paper claims that the WTO, which enforces global…