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Chair of WTO Ag Talks Says New Draft Text Will Simplify Options for Ministers
A new draft text due later this week will simplify options in key areas in order to help ministers take decisions when they meet in Geneva later this month, the chair of the WTO agriculture talks has told Members. The draft accord, now due out on 10 July, will update previous versions released in February and…
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Slow Progress on Industrial Goods Talks in Final Push to Ministerial
Despite the glacial rate of progress in the troubled Doha Round talks on liberalising trade in manufactured goods, the chair of the WTO negotiating committee told Members on Tuesday that he would issue an updated draft deal later this week, most likely late in the day on 10 July. The new non-agricultural market access (NAMA) draft,…
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G8 Addresses Doha, Climate, Global Food Crisis
Leaders from the world’s eight strongest economies met this week to forge solutions on rising oil prices, the global food crisis, the environment and global warming, Africa and development, and political issues including non-proliferation and counterterrorism, as well as the ongoing negotiations at the Doha round of trade talks. The annual meeting of the Group of…
- In Brief
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Indonesia-Japan Free Trade Deal Takes Effect
A free trade agreement between Indonesia and Japan took effect on 1 July. The deal slashes tariffs on most goods traded between the two nations and allows Indonesian nurses to work full-time in Asia’s largest economy. The trade deal, for which negotiations began in July 2005 and concluded in August last year, eliminates tariffs on approximately…
- WTO in Brief
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Services 'Signalling Conference' Set for Ministerial Week
Services negotiators will meet in the middle of the WTO’s upcoming ministerial conference to ’signal’ the improvements they plan to make in their offers on market opening in services, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told delegates from two dozen Member states at a ‘green room’ meeting last week. In preparation for that signalling conference, which is set…
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Laos Progresses toward WTO Membership
Laos has made steady progress toward becoming a full-fledged Member of the WTO, but further work is required before the country’s accession package can be finalised, a working party on the country’s accession process announced at a meeting late last week. Laos first applied to join the WTO in July 1997. Discussions are currently focused on…
- Events
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Events
Coming up 10-16 July 10 July, London, UK. PAKISTAN: THE (VERY) LONG MARCH TO DEMOCRACY. Hosted by Chatham House, this meeting will explore recent events in Pakistan. Six months after the parliamentary election, Pakistan remains in the grip of political uncertainty, convulsed by a severe economic crisis and on-going militant violence. Differences within the ruling coalition…
- Resources
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Resources
As ministers prepare to gather in Geneva on 21st July in an effort to finalise a draft WTO agricultural trade deal, it becomes increasingly important to understand the trade and development implications of the blueprint ‘modalities’ accord that is on the table. ICTSD, IPC and IFPRI have therefore commissioned a series of studies that aim…