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Cape Verde Joins The WTO As Members Look Ahead To 2008
Cape Verde is the newest member to accede to the WTO, following approval on 18 December by the General Council, the WTO’s top permanent decision-making body. Director-General Pascal Lamy welcomed Cape Verde’s accession as “adding another valuable member to the family” and bringing the WTO “another step closer to universal membership.” Also at the last General…
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Fisheries Subsidies Text Represents A Strong Starting Point, Say Delegates
WTO Members expressed overall satisfaction with a set of potential multilateral disciplines on fisheries subsidy spending put forward by the Chair of the Doha Round rules talks, during the negotiating committee’s meetings on 12 and 14 December. While there was not unanimity on the specifics of each provision in the draft text put forward by Chair…
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Trade Facilitation Meeting Looks At Customs Fees And Formalities
Discussions in the WTO Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation last week focused mainly on reforming multilateral rules for trade-related fees and formalities to ensure that they do not serve as an undue obstacle to commerce. The talks on cutting red tape and other obstacles to the trade and transit of goods have proceeded more smoothly than…
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US, Other Countries Clash Over Anti-Dumping Rules In Chair's Text
The US and other major trading nations last week continued to clash over proposed changes to WTO trade remedy rules, principally on the issue of ‘zeroing’, a controversial practice that Washington uses to calculate anti-dumping duties. At the end of three days of talks, the chair of the negotiations on 14 December said that an agreement…
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Services Talks Pick Up Momentum
WTO discussions on liberalising trade in services have picked up the pace over the past two weeks, although precisely how to move ahead with the negotiations remains a source of contention. At a 6 December meeting of the Council for Trade in Services Special Session, the ongoing development of a text by the chair of the…
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Caribbean Group, Cameroon, Ghana Sign EPAs With EU
Fourteen Caribbean nations, Cameroon, and Ghana have joined the list of countries that have agreed to reciprocal trade deals with the EU just ahead of a crucial end-year deadline, thus saving their exports to Europe from major disruption in 2008. The accords are the most recent in a flurry of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the…
- In Brief
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In Brief
BALI MEETING STAKES OUT PATH TO GLOBAL CLIMATE AGREEMENT A global meeting has approved a roadmap for negotiations on a new agreement to tackle climate change, bringing all countries onboard. Close to 12,000 people convened in Bali, Indonesia, from 3-15 December, at the largest climate meeting to date under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief - WTO panel rules against EU banana tariff regime
A WTO dispute panel ruled on 10 December that the EU has failed to bring its banana import regime into compliance with former WTO rulings. The battle over bananas between the EU and suppliers to which it does not give preferential market access — mainly in Latin America — is one of the most longstanding…
- Events
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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 : 20 December - 16 January 9-12 January, Jaipur, India: STRENGTHENING SKILLS ON COMMERCIAL & ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY. This training programme for senior-level civil…
- Resources
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Resources
TRADE-RELATED MEASURES AND MULTILATERAL ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS. UNEP, 2007. This paper contributes to ongoing negotiations at the WTO by analysing MEA trade-related measures in the context of their overall objectives. In particular, the paper provides a detailed review of the main provisions and specific trade-related measures found in six MEAs. The paper also explores the linkage…