• Hopes Fade For Doha Modalities Mini-Ministerial In May
    WTO Members "have only a few weeks, not months" in which to conclude framework agreements on agriculture and industrial goods trade if they are to have any hope of concluding the Doha Round this year, the head of the global trade body said this week." This is a very tight schedule, but it is still…
  • WHO Committee Makes Progress, But Falls Short Of Agreement On Health Innovation
    Government negotiators in a World Health Organization committee last week fell short of finalising a potential plan to encourage pharmaceutical innovation that better responds to the needs of people in poor countries. Although they agreed on much of the content of a draft global strategy, they had to leave some of the most contentious issues…
  • Services committee looks at signalling conference, LDC modalities
    The Doha Round services negotiations received increased attention this week, with the arrival in Geneva of senior officials from a number of trading nations to discuss how governments might go about assuring each other about future market-opening under a potential WTO accord.Services chair Ambassador Fernando de Mateo (Mexico) told the negotiating committee at an informal…
  • WTO in Brief
  • Slow Progress on Agriculture
    Trade diplomats at the WTO are expecting to discuss lists of specific farm commodities facing demands for either gentler-than-normal or expedited liberalisation at meetings later this week. Talks on these exceptions to standard tariff treatment, long among the more contentious issues in the Doha Round agriculture talks, will affect the timing of the release of…
  • Events
  • Events
    Coming up: 8-14 May 12 May, Bogor, Indonesia. FOOD, FUEL AND FORESTS: A SEMINAR ON CLIMATE CHANGE, AGRICULTURE AND TRADE. Organised by the International Food and Agriculture Trade Policy Council. The scale of carbon emissions from deforestation has been estimated to be greater than that of the fossil fuel intensive global transport sector, and discussions…
  • Resources
  • Resources
    RISING FOOD PRICES WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? By Joachim von Braun. International Food Policy Research Institute Policy Brief, April 2008. The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition situation of poor people in developing countries, about inflation, and — in some countries…