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So, What Next?
Yet another do-or-die moment passed in the Doha Round when a highly anticipated ministerial gathering was abandoned in December, leaving all actors perplexed about where to go next. New negotiating texts released in early December failed to inspire confidence among WTO Members that ministers would succeed in clinching a framework deal on agriculture and industrial market…
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WTO Leadership Challenges in 2009
When the WTO starts its work for 2009, three items must be at the top of the agenda: debating the role and mandate of the agency’s Director-General, setting a date for a full Ministerial Conference this year in Geneva and forging a forward-looking agenda for that meeting. In the absence of political direction - and consumed…
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Lamy Sets Out Agenda for 2009
Looking forward to 2009 in his end-of-the-year speech to the WTO membership, Director-General Pascal Lamy agreed that it could be a ‘useful exercise’ to brainstorm over “issues which are beyond the scope of the negotiations but which relate to areas interfacing the WTO,” as some Members had expressed the desire to do, but cautioned that…
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Revised NAMA Text Fails to Bridge Gaps on Key Issues
The latest negotiating text, released on 6 December, shows that WTO Members remain far apart on participation in sectoral liberalisation initiatives on industrial goods, as well as preference erosion and exemptions from general tariff cut disciplines. Unlike previous drafts, which contained ranges of numbers, the new text includes specific formulae and figures for determining countries’ future…
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Cautious New Rules Text Reflects Persistent Divisions
On 19 December, the chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules released a long-awaited revision of his first draft on changes to WTO disciplines on anti-dumping and non-agricultural subsidies. On all contentious points, the new text discards previously proposed amendments to existing provisions. The rules negotiations have been characterised from the start by a stark divide…
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Lessons from the Cotton Dispute: A View from Brazilian Industry
The cotton case made history at the WTO and opened the way to possible disputes in the future. This article discusses the potential gains for Brazil from such litigation, as well as outstanding issues surrounding retaliation. Brazilian cotton producers have competed against US cotton for decades. The US government has subsidised its cotton production since 1933,…
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US, Brazil Clash on Cotton Sanctions
Brazil and the US have submitted wildly different estimates to WTO arbitrators with regard to the damage inflicted on the Brazilian economy by US cotton subsidies. The two sides also disagree on whether Brazil should be allowed cross-retaliate in the intellectual property and services sectors. The Appellate Body ruled in June that the US had failed…
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The Bush-Schwab Policy on the Colombia FTA Has Failed Miserably
The recent adjournment of the 110th Congress provides the final verdict on the Bush Administration’s strategy for securing the enactment of the Colombia-US Free Trade Agreement. The verdict is that the non-cooperative strategy of President Bush and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab failed miserably. By way of background, recall that on 7 April 2008, the Bush…
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The EU Should Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is on Free Trade
As the world moves from credit crunch to economic crisis to wide-scale recession, world leaders have warned that protectionism is a path to global economic ruin. They have committed themselves to stopping protectionism that would further erode confidence in the global economy and worsen the current crisis. The European Union has been more forceful than most…
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Banana Dispute Update
On 6 January, the Dispute Settlement Body adopted the latest Appellate Body report in the WTO’s longest running dispute. The AB backed a WTO panel’s December 2007 determination that Brussels had failed to comply with earlier WTO rulings (Bridges Year 12 No.1 page 10). Complainants Ecuador and the US had challenged both the -176/mt most-favoured-nation (MFN)…
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Verified Sustainable Brazilian Ethanol in Swedish Pumps
While exporting and importing governments are often at loggerheads over the legitimacy of sustainability criteria for biofuels, private companies have agreed on a certification scheme that allows verifiably sustainable ethanol to be imported from Brazil to Sweden. Over the past year, Sekab - a leading European supplier of renewable fuels in Sweden - and four Brazilian…
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Europe Adopts Climate Change Package
Both EU member states and the European Parliament agreed in December upon legislation to combat climate change, but critics claim that the compromise deal contains too many loopholes. The package upholds the 20-20-20 targets proposed by the European Commission for 2020: a 20-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels; increasing the share of renewables…
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Poznan Climate Meeting Matched Low Expectations
Global climate talks held in Poznan in December made unexpected progress on a UN Adaptation Fund and marginal movement towards an agreement on technology transfer. Nevertheless, many observers criticised the meeting for yielding exactly what was expected: very little. The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP-14, was…
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How Is President Obama Likely to Deal with Trade?
The new president of the United States has sent clear signals about how he intends to change American foreign policy on issues ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to climate change and the pursuit of co-operative diplomacy in general. On trade, however, the picture is more blurry. In their otherwise hearty endorsements of Obama’s…
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Facts and Figures
A World Bank report released in December examined the impact of the financial crisis on GDP growth across the world. Here are some of the key projections for 2009: Global GDP growth will slip from 2.5 percent in 2008 to 0.9 percent. Developing country growth is expected to fall from 7.9 percent in 2007 to…
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Meetings
WTO Meetings Jan. 20 Dispute Settlement Body Feb. 3-4 General Council Feb.19 Dispute Settlement Body Feb. 23-26 Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures March 3-4 Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Mar. 16-17 Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Workshop on the Role of International Standards in Economic…
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Publications
New from ICTSD Busch, Marc; Reinhardt, Eric and Shaffer, Gregory. 2008. Does Legal Capacity Matter? Explaining Dispute Initiation and Antidumping Actions in the WTO. Issue Paper No. 4. ICTSD Project on Dispute Settlement Bianchi, Andrea; Gradoni, Lorenzo and Samson, Melanie. 2008. Developing Countries, Countermeasures and WTO Law: Reinterpreting the DSU against the Background of International Law.…