Bridges Trade BioRes

Volume 5 • Number 5 18th March 2005

  • TRIPS COUNCIL FOCUSES ON BENEFIT-SHARING FOR GENETIC RESOURCES
    TRIPS COUNCIL FOCUSES ON BENEFIT-SHARING FOR GENETIC RESOURCES During the 8-9 March meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in Geneva, Brazil on behalf of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Venezuela tabled the third proposal in a series of three on the relationship between the TRIPS…
  • NEW FAO REPORT INTRODUCES WEEK OF DEBATE ON FISHERIES
    NEW FAO REPORT INTRODUCES WEEK OF DEBATE ON FISHERIES The FAO report "The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture" (SOFIA 2004) released on 7 March confirms a continued decline in exploitable marine fish stocks, threatening food security and poverty alleviation efforts. In the week following the release, delegates met for the 26th session of the…
  • WTO: BRAZIL COTTON VICTORY AGAINST US REAFFIRMED
    WTO: BRAZIL COTTON VICTORY AGAINST US REAFFIRMED The WTO Appellate Body has upheld all major findings of an earlier WTO panel that ruled that US cotton subsidies were in violation of WTO rules on agriculture and subsidies (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 23 September 2004, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/04-09-23/inbrief.htm#3). Trade analysts noted that this ruling together with Brazil’s challenge…
  • In Brief
  • European Patent Office Upholds NEEM Patent Revocation
    The Technical Board of Appeals of the European Patent Office (EPO) on 8 March upheld a 2000 decision to revoke a patent on a fungicidal product extracted from seeds from the Indian neem tree, bringing to a close a ten-year battle around the patent (see BRIDGES Weekly, 23 May 2000). The decision thereby dismissed an…
  • China's Timber Needs Threaten World Forests - Report
    In their 8 March report “China’s Wood Market, Trade and the Environment”, the environmental group WWF urged China to change its current policies regarding timber imports and logging to avert “devastating impacts on some of the planet’s outstanding forests” resulting from the country’s rapidly rising demand for wood. Since China’s logging ban in 1998 due…
  • Europe to Adjust Border Prices in Trade with Non-Kyoto Countries?
    Caroline Lucas, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), recently raised the issue of adjustment measures at the border to protect European companies — which face costs related to climate change abatement under the Kyoto Protocol — from unfair competition from companies in non-Kyoto countries such as the US, which “are avoiding these costs at…
  • Blair Commission for Africa Calls for Fairer Trade
    The Commission for Africa established in 2004 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued its report on 11 March, calling for “more and fairer trade” for the continent. It put forward recommendations for reducing poverty in Africa, and helping the continent cope with globalisation. The 450-page study identifies governance, capacity building, peace and security, education,…
  • 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 16-18 March,…
  • 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. THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE WTO. By 3D and FORUM-ASIA, December 2004. This Practical Guide seeks to enable human rights advocates to be effective…