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NAMA Negotiations May Make or Break Doha Round
After a majority of developing country WTO Members made clear their continued opposition to the July draft text on market access for industrial goods, the outcome of the talks is uncertain. Meanwhile, new research offers developing countries ammunition to defend their positions. A large coalition of developing countries presented a controversial proposal on nonagricultural market access…
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Sensitive Products: The July Modalities Text Made Plain
Echoing persistent differences in WTO Members’ positions, the market access pillar was far less developed than those for domestic support or export competition in the draft agricultural modalities circulated by chair Crawford Falconer in July. In paragraph 13 of the Doha Declaration, ministers of WTO Member countries committed themselves to comprehensive negotiations aimed at ‘substantial improvements’…
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Accessibility and Effectiveness of the New SSM: Lessons from Country Simulations
In July 2004, WTO Members agreed that a new mechanism would be established to help developing countries cope with sudden surges in agricultural imports or price depression. The negotiations, however, have made slow progress, partly due to scant data on the potential effects of such a measure. A new study commissioned by the International Centre for…
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Chronicle of a Clash Foretold
The latent rift between developed and developing countries’ perceptions on what would constitute a balanced outcome for the Doha Round is now explicit and likely to delay the conclusion of the negotiations. The seriousness of the clash was evident in developed country reactions to a new proposal on industrial tariff cuts from some 60 developing countries…
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Trade, Climate and Competitiveness
At a recent ICTSD dialogue held in Shanghai, experts and policy-makers shared insights on the impact of current and potential future climate change mitigation measures on China’s trade flows and competitiveness. Carbon Leakage OECD members are increasingly concerned about ‘carbon leakage’, i.e. the relocation of energy-intensive industries to countries such as China or India, which are exempt…
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Compliance Is a Hard Nut to Crack in the Biotech Dispute
With the 21 November deadline rapidly approaching for the implementation of WTO rulings in the biotechnology dispute, the European Union has few options for full compliance with the panel’s findings. Difficulties arise both from the ambiguities left in the September 2006 panel reports, as well as the complex European legal structure governing the approval of genetically…
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TRIPS Amendment Vote Delayed in EU
Parliamentarians are holding off a vote on a new public health provision until EU governments guarantee that they will not seek to hinder developing countries’ access to affordable drugs. The European Parliament’s international trade committee on 9 October once again prevented the ratification of a controversial amendment to WTO intellectual property rules aimed at easing poor…
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US Congress to Tackle Farm Bill and Yuan Exchange Rate
The US Senate is expected to start debate on a new farm bill in the third week of October. Congressional consideration of controversial pending legislation on China’s currency is also on the cards in the coming weeks. While the final details of the new farm bill to be submitted to the Senate Agriculture Committee by its…
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EU-Andean Trade Pact Underway
The European Union and the four members of the Andean Community launched negotiations for an Association Agreement in September. The initial meeting focused on clarifying the expectations of both sides regarding the three pillars of the future agreement, i.e. development co-operation, political dialogue and trade liberalisation. Bolivia will be the Andean lead country on co-operation. The issues…
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Peru FTA Approval Moves to Congress
The clock for congressional consideration of the US-Peru free trade agreement started ticking in late September, but Democrats still have concerns. President Bush submitted implementing legislation on the treaty to Congress on 27 September. The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have 45 days to consider the proposal. The House then has…
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Much Talk But Little Action on Climate Change
As a key United Nations conference in Bali next December draws closer, political activity around issues related to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change is intensifying worldwide. Parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed in August on the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to less than 25-40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020 (the…
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UNCTAD Calls for Caution in North - South Trade Agreements
Developing countries should carefully weigh the long-term growth implications of preferential or free trade agreements with developed countries, a new United Nations report suggests. The number of free trade agreements notified to the WTO has grown from 20 in 1990 to 159 in 2007, and may reach 400 by the year 2010. While the proliferating accords…
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UNESCO Tackles Culture and Commerce
A new international treaty entered into force in March, encouraging parties to adopt measures to protect the diversity of cultural expressions that may be imperilled by the quickening pace of globalisation. Since the early 1980s, international trade in cultural goods has grown six-fold, increasing from US$9.5 billion in 1980 to US$60 billion in 2002. According to…
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Is the IMF Closing All Paths to Trade-led Development?
The International Monetary Fund’s latest review of criteria for surveillance over member governments’ exchange rate policies threatens to dramatically reduce developing country economies’ options for growth, job creation and diversification through trade. Last June, the IMF decided on modifications to the main guidelines on the implementation of Article IV of its Articles of Agreement.1 The…
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EU Appeals Brazil Tyres Case
The EU has formally appealed a WTO ruling against Brazil’s import restrictions on retreaded tyres, despite having nominally won the dispute. The EU had argued before the panel that Brazil’s measures were motivated by a desire to protect the local retreading industry from import competition rather than by the pursuit of genuine public health objectives as…
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Disputes Involving China on the Inrease at the WTO
China has initiated dispute settlement proceedings on US trade remedy action targeting some of its paper exports. Panels have also been established on China’s industrial subsidies and the country’s enforcement of intellectual property rights. The decision to pursue the trade remedy case marks the second time that China has sought to use the WTO dispute settlement…
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Rwanda Tests Public Health Waiver
Rwanda is set to become the first nation to use a WTO procedure designed to allow developing countries without manufacturing capacity of their own to import of patented medicines produced under compulsory licence in another country. The WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) allows members to issue compulsory licences in specific circumstances,…
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Tangible Progress in Some Areas of Agriculture Talks
Farm liberalisation negotiations held in September took place in a ‘transformed’ atmosphere, chair Crawford Falconer said. Members sought to achieve greater clarity in several key areas, but did not address the contentious numbers for tariff and subsidy cuts, or the use of flexibilities. All countries may designate a certain percentage of tariff lines as sensitive (chair…
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EU GMO Update
Reflecting wide-spread mistrust of genetically engineered farm and food products in Europe, EU agriculture ministers on 26 September once again failed to muster the qualified majority required for the authorisation to market genetically modified organisms (GMOs) found safe by the European Food Safety Authority. The continued stalemate means that the final decision will be taken…
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In Brief
European and Korean negotiators clashed on tariff concessions at their September meeting on a bilateral free trade agreement that both sides hope to conclude promptly. Chief among the EU’s concerns was that Korea was proposing to cut tariffs on European industrial and agricultural goods more slowly than it had agreed to do under the US-Korea FTA…
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CAFTA Update
On 7 October, Costa Rica became the first nation in the world to approve a free trade agreement by popular vote. More than 60 percent of voters turned up at the ballot box, and the ‘yes’ carried the day by 51.6 percent. At issue was the DR-CAFTA pact concluded between the United States and Costa Rica,…
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WIPO Update
On 28 September, member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) formally adopted a new Development Agenda, meant to insert a development dimension across all of the institution’s activities. The agenda consists of 45 recommendations dealing six areas of activity: (a) technical assistance and capacity-building; (b) norm-setting; (c) technology transfer, information and…
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Beef Hormones
A confidential interim report in the beef hormones dispute between the EU, the US and Canada has found that EU regulations on growth hormones in beef still do not comply with the requirements of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, sources familiar with the ruling say. The report concerns a case brought by…
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Fisheries Update
Wrapping up a week of discussions on fisheries subsidies on 28 September, chair Guillermo Valles Galmés of the WTO negotiating group on rules said there was ‘near-consensus’ on the prohibition of measures that promote fleet overcapacity and overfishing. A large number Members praised a joint submission by Argentina and Brazil, which spelled out exceptions to the…