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WTO MEMBERS TACKLE DEVELOPMENT ASPECT OF FISHERIES SUBSIDIES
WTO MEMBERS TACKLE DEVELOPMENT ASPECT OF FISHERIES SUBSIDIES The WTO Negotiation Group on Rules, meeting on 11, 13 and 15 April in Geneva, made progress in the discussion on disciplining fisheries subsidies within the WTO based on submissions by Brazil and the EC dealing with special and differential treatment (S&DT) and enforcement of fisheries subsidies rules…
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CODEX CONSIDERS ROLE OF PRECAUTION IN RISK STANDARD
CODEX CONSIDERS ROLE OF PRECAUTION IN RISK STANDARD The Codex Alimentarius Committee on General Principles (CCGP) decided to reopen the Proposed Draft Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Food Safety for governments by discarding the current draft and starting discussions on a new one, after deadlock on the role of precaution in the principles held up…
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CALL FOR 'GREEN GROWTH' IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
CALL FOR ‘GREEN GROWTH’ IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION Over 500 participants meeting from 23-29 March for the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific (MCED 2005) agreed that economic growth in the region had to be made environmentally sustainable in order to relieve pressure on the carrying capacity of ecosystems in the…
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EU, US BATTLE OVER ILLEGAL GM CORN
EU, US BATTLE OVER ILLEGAL GM CORN The European Commission on 15 April voted to introduce emergency measures restricting the import of GM corn feed from the US. The decision requires all imports to be accompanied by an analytical report issued by an accredited laboratory certifying that the import is free of illegal GM corn. The…
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Global Week of Action on Trade Calls for Trade Justice
The Global Week of Action was launched this week with several million people from over 70 countries joining in the call for trade justice at local events around the world. Events run from 10 to 16 April and include special church services, a global fast for trade justice, public debates, concerts, mass rallies, sending live…
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India Releases Draft Biotechnology Strategy
The Indian government released a draft national biotechnology development strategy on 4 April, that describes plans to set up a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority. The draft proposes the creation of a single authority on biotechnology regulation that would include separate divisions for transgenic crops, recombinant drugs and industrial products, transgenic food and feed, transgenic animals…
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Governments Meet in Geneva to Discuss WIPO Development Agenda
The extent to which developmental concerns should figure in the work of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and scope of such concerns were the focus of a 11-13 April WIPO ‘inter-sessional inter-governmental meeting’ (IIM) in Geneva. The IIM was convened after fourteen developing countries, who have since described themselves as the “Friends of Development”,…
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Protect Crops Vital to Food Security, Oxfam Says
Rich WTO Member countries are threatening the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing countries by walking out on a promise to exempt vital food crops from tariff cuts, according to a new report by international charity Oxfam. The report, entitled “Kicking down the door”, calls for crops vital for food security and livelihoods in developing…
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Regionalisation Identified as Top Priority by ICPM
The need to identify regions within countries was the top priority at the 7th session of the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (ICPM) held in Rome from 4 to 8 April. The ICPM is the governing body of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), an international expert body setting plant and phytosanitary standards. Currently, trade…
- Events
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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. ICTSD 21 April, Geneva, Switzerland: DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS: INCORPORATING…
- Resources
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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. CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE CONFLICT OVER AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY. By Thomas Bernauer in International Journal of Biotechnology 7 (1/2/3) (2005). This article explores…