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CODEX SEES CLASH ON BIOTECH LABELLING
CODEX SEES CLASH ON BIOTECH LABELLING Participants at the 9-13 May meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, clashed on the need to label biotech foods that differed from their conventional counterparts. Some countries, including the major biotech producers, said that labelling should only be required for biotech foods…
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FIRST STOCKHOLM COP MOVES TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION
FIRST STOCKHOLM COP MOVES TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION In what was generally described as constructive meeting, the first Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from 2-6 May, made substantial progress towards setting up the process for implementing the Convention. Parties, however, continued to struggle with…
- In Brief
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AG Trade May Worsen Desertification, Experts Say
Joint efforts by national agricultural and environmental departments are necessary to address the impacts of agricultural trade on desertification and poverty, according to a report released by Unisfera on 6 May. The report, entitled “From Boom To Dust? Agricultural Trade Liberalisation, Poverty, And Desertification In Rural Drylands: The Role Of UNCCD“, analyses the impact of…
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WIPO Seminar Looks at Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge
The relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs), biodiversity and traditional knowledge (TK) — and the role of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in enhancing this relationship — were discussed by representatives from governments, civil society and the private sector at a session on biodiversity and TK, co-organised by WIPO as part of the International…
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WTO Food Aid Disciplines Could Increase Hunger, Warns UN
In a speech to developing country WTO delegates, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris on 9 May warned that improperly drafted rules on food aid could contribute to hunger in the world’s poorest countries. The WFP was “absolutely opposed” to limiting food aid to cash, he said, a proposal that had been…
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Paris Mini-Ministerial Revives Optimism About WTO Negotiations
Shortly after WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi warned WTO Members attending a ‘mini-ministerial’ gathering in Paris on 4 May that negotiations to liberalise trade were behind schedule, a breakthrough compromise was reached on agricultural talks at the Paris meeting. The WTO negotiations had been held up for several weeks due to divisions over ‘ad valorem equivalent’…
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FAO Study Surveys Biotech in Developing Countries
A new study released on 6 May by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the status of research and application of crop biotechnologies in developing countries shows that while several developing countries have well-developed biotech research and development programs, there are several gaps that prevent developing countries from using the technology to…
- 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. Coming up in the next two weeks 16-27 May,…
- 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 Sarah Mohan. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TRADE IN INDIA. By Kakali Mukhopadhyay and Debesh Chakraborty in the International Trade Journal 19 (2), Summer 2005. This article aims…