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Vacancy
The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) is seeking an attorney to join its Geneva office to direct CIEL’s Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development Project. S/he will be responsible for the development of innovative solutions to legal and policy questions arising at the interface of international law relating to environment and health, trade, and development,…
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EU Signals Some Willingness To Move On AG Market Access; Talks Still Blocked
The chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations concluded on 19 May that Members were making very gradual progress, and that much remained to be done for them to reach a framework deal with specific figures for farm tariff and subsidy cuts. Recent signs from the EU that it might sweeten its offer on agricultural market…
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NAMA: Members To Turn To Core Issues Even Though Minor Ones Remain Unresolved
Another week of intense negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) has yielded little concrete progress, Chair Ambassador Don Stephenson (Canada) reported to Members on 19 May. Despite the absence of agreement on the various minor issues that trade negotiators have been discussing in recent weeks, Stephenson asked them to expand their focus to include the ‘core…
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AG: Members Trying To Bridge Gaps On Tropical Products, Preference Erosion
WTO Members appear willing to try to bridge persistent differences on how to liberalise trade in tropical products while also addressing the effects of trade preference erosion, the chair of the agriculture negotiations said on 19 May, following consultations with negotiators from about 20 delegations. Both sets of consultations were based on ‘reference papers’ that Chair…
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G-20 Circulates New Papers On Blue Box, Green Box Farm Subsidies
In two informal papers issued on 16 May, the G-20 group of developing countries fleshed out their views on how farm subsidies could be reformed through the WTO agriculture negotiations. Specifically, the group proposed some conditions for payments under the ‘blue box’ (which include subsidies that are partially decoupled from production), aimed at ensuring that they…
- In Brief
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In Brief
LATIN AMERICAN HEALTH MINISTERS STRESS LINKS BETWEEN IP AND HEALTH On 23 May, health ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela issued a joint declaration on the links between intellectual property (IP) protections, access to medicine and public health, during the annual General Assembly of the World Health Organization in…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief
US AND VIETNAM REACH AGREEMENT ‘IN PRINCIPLE’ ON WTO ACCESSION The US and Vietnam have reached an agreement ‘in principle’ on the Southeast Asian nation’s terms of accession to the WTO, clearing one of the last major hurdles for it to join the global trade body. They concluded the accord…
- Events
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Events
EVENTS For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar. If you would like to submit an event, please email us. Upcoming : 25-31 May 30 May, Geneva, Switzerland: DIALOGUE ON THE MEXICO SOFT DRINKS DISPUTE: IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONALSM AND FOR TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Organised by the International…
- Resources
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Resources
PROTECTING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE: PATHWAYS TO THE FUTURE. By Graham Dutfield. International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, April 2006. Traditional knowledge provides the underpinning for successful ways of subsisting in what are often hostile natural environments. Indeed, there is growing recognition that traditional knowledge, technologies and cultural expressions are highly evolutionary,…