-
NEW TEXTUAL PROPOSALS ON FISHERIES SUBSIDIES TABLED AT THE WTO
NEW TEXTUAL PROPOSALS ON FISHERIES SUBSIDIES TABLED AT THE WTO WTO talks on fisheries subsidies made considerable headway at an 8-10 May meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules, with three new submissions tabled that propose draft text for the eventual disciplines. Brazil’s revised draft text — presented by Fisheries Minister Jose Fritsch in a strong…
-
WTO: HOW TO EVALUATE IF A GOOD IS ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY?
WTO: HOW TO EVALUATE IF A GOOD IS ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY? At an informal 10-12 May technical meeting of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTE-SS), Members were split on how to evaluate whether certain wastewater and solid and hazardous waste management products could be described as ‘environmental’ for the purposes of expedited trade…
-
CODEX DISCUSSIONS ON BIOTECH LABELLING SURVIVE CHALLENGE
CODEX DISCUSSIONS ON BIOTECH LABELLING SURVIVE CHALLENGE Participants at the 1-5 May meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) in Ottawa, Canada, decided to give negotiations on Draft Guidelines for the labelling of biotech food and food ingredients another chance before reconsidering a proposal to suspend the stalled negotiations. Although major biotech producers argued…
-
WIPO COMMITTEE CONSIDERS MECHANISM TO PROTECT TK
WIPO COMMITTEE CONSIDERS MECHANISM TO PROTECT TK World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) members were unable to agree on how best to protect genetic resources, traditional knowledge (TK) and folklore, as a five-day meeting of the Committee dedicated to addressing these issues ended on an inconclusive note on 28 April. The ninth session of WIPO’s Intergovernmental Committee…
-
ENERGY FOCUS AT CSD-14 REINVIGORATES DEBATE
ENERGY FOCUS AT CSD-14 REINVIGORATES DEBATE At the fourteenth meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development, held at the UN Headquarters on 1-12 May, political will and support for the CSD and the need for global action on energy reached a peak along with heated discussions on the roles of renewable energy technology and the private…
- In Brief
-
Transfer Agreement for Genetic Resources Receives Tentative Support
Delegates at the second meeting of the Contact Group established by the Interim Committee of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), held in Alnarp, Sweden on 24-28 April, agreed on a draft standard contract to facilitate access and benefit-sharing of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Although a…
-
Final WTO Biotech Panel Report Maintains Verdict Against EU
A WTO dispute panel on 10 May issued its final ruling on the complaint brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against what they alleged was an EU moratorium on the approval of new biotech products. The substance of the report, which remains confidential and was only released to the parties to the dispute, remained…
-
Two African Laws Proposed for TK, Trade in Genetic Resources
To address civil society concerns regarding sustainable use of biodiversity, trade and protection of intellectual property rights, Malawi and Kenya have recently begun framing laws on access and benefit sharing and protection of traditional knowledge (TK). In Malawi, civil society actors on 22 April gathered to examine the governments’ draft bill on intellectual property rights,…
-
Technologies, Synergies in Focus for Stockholm Convention
The second Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1-5 May, examined how transfer of environmental technologies could help reduce and eliminate the production and use of POPs and took up the controversial issue of cooperation between the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Basel Conventions.…
-
WTO: New Mechanism Proposed to Deal With NTBs
The EU and eleven developing countries on 15 May called for the establishment of a new WTO mechanism to arbitrate conflicts over non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade in goods. At an informal meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) on 15 May, a proposal from the EU (TN/MA/W/11/Add.8) and one from…
-
Indian Gov't Tries to Clarify GM Import Rules, Backtrackes
Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on 7 April presented a supplement to the countries’ Foreign Trade Act that included what he described as “clear guidelines” on imports of genetically modified crops. The supplement says that imports of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for food, feed or processing, industrial processing, research and development for commercialisation or environmental…
- 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 18-26 May,…
- 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 smohan@ictsd.ch. ICTSD Resource PROTECTING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE: PATHWAYS TO THE FUTURE. By Graham Dutfield (ICTSD, April 2006). Traditional knowledge provides the underpinning for successful ways of subsisting in…