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Doha Round: Lamy Gives Green Light To 'De Facto' Resumption Of Geneva Talks
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on 16 November gave Geneva-based trade diplomats the ‘green light’ to start informal discussions on all issues in the stalled Doha Round talks. He told an informal heads of delegation gathering that "fully-fledged" negotiations, in contrast, would remain impossible until Members came forward with softened…
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Nairobi Climate Meeting Focuses On Future Climate Action, Adaptation Needs
Amid rising greenhouse gas emissions and a heightened focus on the economic costs of global warming, a two-week long UN climate change conference in Nairobi left both government delegates and civil society representatives with the feeling that they had accomplished little. The UN Climate Change Conference - Nairobi 2006, encompassing…
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APEC, Others Want Doha Talks To Restart, But Make No New Offers
Heads of state from 21 Pacific Rim countries region have said they are willing to offer fresh concessions to break the deadlock in the Doha Round trade talks — so long as governments "in other regions" do the same. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hanoi from…
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Ecuador Unpeels New Chapter In Banana Dispute With EU
The Ecuadorian government has taken the first step towards suing the EU at the WTO for continuing to unfairly discriminate against its banana exports, violating a series of prior rulings. Its decision to do so, however, has been contested even at home, with some domestic banana producers questioning the…
- In Brief
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In Brief
FLURRY OF BILATERAL FTAS ANNOUNCED AMIDST RUMOURS OF DOHA RESUMPTION In the days surrounding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hanoi on 18-19 November, governments from the region and elsewhere announced a slew of new and revived bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations. Malaysia and Chile announced their intention to start talks towards a bilateral FTA…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief
RUSSIA, US SIGN BILATERAL WTO ACCESSION AGREEMENT Russia and the US have formally signed a bilateral deal on the former’s accession to the WTO, after more than 12 years of negotiations. US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin inked the 800-page pact on 19 November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum…
- 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 at: http://www.ictsd.org/cal/index.htm. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. Upcoming : 23-29 November 23-24 November, Geneva, Switzerland: AD-HOC EXPERT MEETING ON ADVOCACY FOR INVESTMENT POLICIES WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE…
- Resources
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Resources
BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE WORLD TRADING SYSTEM. By Jayant Menon. Asian Development Bank, November 2006. Bilateral Trade Agreements (BTAs) have been proliferating. Why are they so popular? What are their impacts on multilateralism and the world trading system? This paper attempts to answer these questions. First it identifies the general and specific factors driving…