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1 - India, US Agree to Work on Doha Deal
Atmospherics in Geneva veered from gloom to cautious optimism when the new chief trade negotiators of India and United States joined the call of the Cairns Group to restart Doha Round negotiations between senior officials before the WTO’s August break. In a communiqué issued after a three-day meeting in Bali in early June, trade ministers…
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2 - Dead Aid or Recovering Patient
Of course, the easy retort is that her recipe - more foreign investment and access to international capital markets - while feasible (and actually happening) at the time she wrote her book, offers no alternative at present: due to the economic crisis foreign money flows have been reversing and there were no international bond issues…
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3 - Regular WTO Ministerial Announced for December
The ministerial conference will take place in Geneva from 30 November to 2 December under the general theme of The WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the Current Global Economic Environment. General Council chair Mario Matus stressed that the event would not be a negotiating session, but rather a ‘regular’ gathering involving all Members. Although…
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4 - Protectionism Is Spreading, but Not Yet Alarming, WTO Says
There has been ‘significant slippage’ in WTO Members’ success at resisting protectionist pressures since the start of this year, according to a report on trade-related measures taken in response to the economic crisis released on 26 March. Governments have increased tariffs, introduced new non-tariff measures, and sought to use trade remedies such as anti-dumping duties…
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5 - Argentina Proposes Monitoring Stimulus Measures
At the May General Council meeting, Argentina submitted a proposal aimed at enhancing the WTO’s capacity to assess the impacts of fiscal stimulus and sectoral relief packages. Argentina noted that the G-20 leaders had requested the WTO to regularly monitor and report on measures adopted by the group’s members as a result of the economic and…
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6 - Farm Exporters Call for Doha Restart
In their final communiqué, reproduced almost in its entirety below, the ministers stated: “The Doha Development Round has a particularly important role to play at this time of global economic crisis. Concluding the negotiations would deliver a much needed contribution to economic recovery and demonstrate the benefits of the multilateral trading system. This outcome is within our grasp,…
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7 - Ecuador Gets Waiver on Import Curbs
In January, Ecuador announced a series of stiff import restrictions on 630 tariff lines, affecting 8.7 percent of its ‘tariff universe’, or 23 percent of the volume of imports. Duties were raised on 369 tariff lines and quota restrictions imposed on 271 others for a one-year period. They cover products ranging from processed foods and…
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8 - Russia Update
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced on 10 June that Russia was abandoning its 16-year quest for WTO membership as an individual country. Instead, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will start a new accession process as a single customs union next year. Both Belarus and Kazakhstan have sought to join the WTO for more than a decade,…
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9 - Tuna-Dolphin Update
A dispute settlement panel was established on 20 April on Mexico’s claim that the criteria for the dolphin-safe logo administered by the US Department of Commerce discriminate against its tuna exports. At the core of the dispute is the Mexican tuna fleet’s use of purse seine nets, which often trap and kill dolphins that swim above…
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10 - Dairy Subsidies Raise Storm of Protest
The European export refunds have been in effect since January. In March, the EU also restarted buying excess butter and milk from farmers at intervention prices set respectively at €2,218 and €1,698 per tonne. The US subsidies - primarily for milk, butter and, to a lesser extent, cheese - were announced on 22 May. Ironically, the…
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11 - Truce Declared in Beef Hormones Dispute
The agreement does not affect the EU’s decades-old import ban on beef produced with growth-enhancing hormones. Instead, it sets up a four-year process that could resolve the conflict through more market access for high-quality US beef raised without growth hormones. USTR Kirk and Commissioner Ashton called the agreement a ‘pragmatic way forward’ in the long-running…
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12 - Major Trade and Environment Case Looms over Seal Trade
The ban, which must still be approved by EU member states, concerns all seal products except those that result from traditional hunts conducted by Inuits in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia. In addition, by-products of seals culled under national laws for the ‘sole purpose of sustainable management of marine resources’ may be placed on the…
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13 - G-20 Promised Much, but Monitoring Will Be Key
The leaders stressed that the financial contributions they had pledged to the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks, as well trade finance to be disbursed through various channels, constituted an “additional US$1.1 trillion programme of support to restore credit, growth and jobs in the world economy. Together with the measures we have each taken…
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14 - The Global Economic Crisis, the G-20 Summit and Africa
African countries grew by an average of over 5 percent between 2002 and 2007. They also made solid progress in strengthening democratic processes and building good governance. Nearly 30 countries signed on to the African Peer Review Mechanism, and the New Partnership for African Development - a socio-economic programme developed by African leaders at the…
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15 - Europe Scrambles to Finalise Latin American Agreements
Of the four the Andean countries, only Peru and Colombia are still pursuing full-scale ‘association agreements’, as the EU’s trade pacts with developing countries are called. The agreements consist of three pillars, one on trade, another on development co-operation and financing, and a third on political dialogue. Bolivia, an original party to the talks, has boycotted…
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16 - Protests in Peru over Investment Laws
Since April, Peru’s indigenous communities have blocked roads, waterways and airports, staged strikes and shut down oil installations in an attempt to force the government to revoke investment laws passed last year and revise concessions granted to energy and mining companies. President Garcia decreed most of the disputed laws under the special powers Congress gave him…
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17 - China Marches on in Latin America
The China-Peru FTA, hailed as a ‘new landmark’ in bilateral ties by both parties, covers goods, services and investment. The two sides have also reached consensus on a variety of other trade-related issues, including intellectual property, trade remedies and customs regulations. The deal was concluded last November after just 14 months of negotiations. China is Peru’s…
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18 - India Boosts Asian Trade Ties
A deal with ASEAN would open the Southeast Asian market, estimated at US$1.1 trillion, to Indian exporters at a time when Western imports are contracting sharply. The combined population of all partners in the new regional trading zone would exceed 1.5 billion. Tariff cuts are set to start in January 2010. Import duties for ‘normal’ products…
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19 - EU- Asia Update
The EU and South Korea are to hold ministerial-level talks in June in an attempt to finalise a free trade agreement, which both sides say is all but completed. Just two major issues remain: rules of origin and the duty-drawbacks Korea insists must be allowed under the treaty. The term refers to local firms being…
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20 - EU Canada Seek Trade Opening Pact in Times of Crisis
The comprehensive agreement is to cover trade in goods and services, as well investment, government procurement, intellectual property issues, the environment, and science and technology. Currently, trade in goods and services between the EU and Canada amounts to some -70 billion annually. According to a scoping study commissioned by the Canadian government and the European Commission,…
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21 - Public Health and Intellectual Property in the US-Peru TPA
In many cases, the text of the original agreement, adopted in June 2006, exceeded requirements in US legislation with regard to the length of patent protection, exclusivity for undisclosed clinical trial data, as well as the elimination of competition from generic drugs and the absence of safeguards to protect consumers. These provisions also undermined flexibilities…
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22 - Kenya under Pressure to Change Anticounterfeiting Law
The Kenyan Congress passed the controversial legislation in December 2008, but opponents are still pushing for amendments that would reduce the bill’s broad scope and expansive definition of counterfeit goods before it enters into force. That will happen upon notification by the country’s minister of industrialisation, but the date has not yet been announced. The law’s…
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23 - WHO Tackles Intellectual Property, R&D Treaty
After intense debate, member states of the World Health Organisation adopted a final Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property that includes an agreed list of stakeholders who will be involved in the process of implementation, as well as a time frame and progress indicators by which to monitor progress. The plan…
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24 - US Climate Legislation Passes First Test in Congress
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 on 21 May. Dubbed the Waxman-Markey bill after its authors, the legislation would cap US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 17 percent below their 2005 levels by 2020. The figure corresponds roughly to a 3 to 5 percent reduction…
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25 - Major Emitters Narrow Some Gaps
The gathering got off to an inauspicious start with participants wrangling over who should move first and by how much in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. China said that developed countries should commit to a 40-percent reduction from their 1990 levels by 2020 before asking developing countries to take on binding targets under the successor treaty…
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26 - Insights into US Trade Policy
This message served as a starting point for a series of conversations on US trade policy between a group of Geneva-based developing country ambassadors and a wide range of high-ranking US politicians and civil servants, trade analysts and civil society representatives during an ICTSD-sponsored visit to Washington in May. Once the political and economic situation has…
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27 - Meeting Calendar
WTO Meetings June 25-26 Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade June 25-26 Working Group on Standards and Trade Development Facility June 29 Council for Trade in Goods June 29 Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation June 29 Council for Trade in Services - Special Session July 2 Committee on Agriculture July 6-7 Second Global Aid for Trade Review July 14 Working Group…
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28 - Resources
Selected Documents Circulated at the WTO Trade Policy Review Body. 26 March 2009. Second Report to the TPRB from the Director-General on the Financial and Economic Crisis and Trade-related Developments. (JOB(09)30) WTO. 23 March 2009. World Trade 2008, Prospects for 2009. Other Selected Resources Global Trade Alert. New, independent website providing real-time information on measures taken during…