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Planned WTO Mini-Ministerial Postponed As Prospects for Doha Deal Diminish
In another blow to the WTO’s struggling Doha Round of trade talks, a mini-ministerial meeting that Director-General Pascal Lamy had tentatively planned for 13-15 December was postponed this week as major trading powers signalled they were unsure whether a deal could be struck. The high-level gathering had originally been scheduled for this weekend, following recent calls…
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New NAMA Text Released Amidst Doha Gloom
Despite dimming prospects that ministers from around the world will meet in mid-December to try to strike a framework deal in the Doha Round of trade talks, the chair of the WTO industrial goods negotiations has issued an updated draft agreement setting out possible terms that would govern how governments cut tariffs on manufactured merchandise. The…
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Revised Ag Text Reflects Progress, But Final Deal Still Elusive
The chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations has released a revised version of his draft text, intended to serve as the basis for a deal on tariff and subsidy cuts in the Doha Round of trade negotiations. The text, along with a similar paper on industrial goods, was to be sent to trade ministers ahead…
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Obama to Pick Becerra for Top Trade Post, Officials Say
Congressman Xavier Becerra, who has called US trade policy “broken completely” and said that he regrets having voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement, will be US President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for the country’s trade chief, media sources reported last week. Xavier Becerra, a Democratic Congressman from California who has spent nearly 16 years on…
- In Brief
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EU: 16 Developing Countries to Receive GSP+ Market Access Benefits
The European Union has granted preferential tariff rates to 16 developing countries that meet its criteria for sustainable development and good governance, Brussels announced Tuesday. The preferences, dubbed GSP+, are in addition to the standard Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) the EU extends to developing countries. Under the standard GSP, preferential access to the EU market…
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US, China Work Together to Aid Global Trade
The US and China will provide US$ 20 billion in loans to finance trade in a coordinated effort to help ease the economic crisis. The agreement was made with developing countries in mind, and “to contain and curb the spread of the financial contagion and avoid a global recession,” according to Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan.…
- WTO in Brief
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Slow Movement on IP Issues as EU Clarifies GI Proposal
Delegates made progress on intellectual property issues at a TRIPS Council meeting on 5 December, narrowing but not eliminating differences that, if unresolved, risk scuppering the agreement of a global trade deal at the WTO. This was “a significantly better discussion than yesterday” the chair of the talks, Trevor Clarke of Barbados, said, comparing the session…
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Lamy: Review Mechanism Can Improve Access to Medicines in Developing Countries
WTO Members unhappy with the relationship between intellectual property rights and developing countries’ access to medicines should use an annual review mechanism to improve the system that governs those issues, the organisation’s Director-General Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday. All WTO agreements since the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade have recognised that public health is…
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High Food Prices will Continue to Hurt Poor Countries, WTO Ag Committee Hears
Agricultural prices remain high despite recent drops and are likely to exacerbate nutritional and economic problems in poor and developing countries that are net-food importers, a meeting of the WTO’s regular Agriculture Committee heard on 4 December. The meeting’s discussion on the relationship between WTO rules and national food security was driven by a statement by…
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US ‘Zeroing’ Practice Challenged at WTO, Again, This Time by Brazil, Thailand
Brazil and Thailand both initiated WTO consultations at the end of November over a contentious method that the US uses to calculate the extent of trade violations. Central to both cases is the use by the US of ‘zeroing’, a controversial method of determining whether and by how much trading partners are ‘dumping’ (exporting at artificially…
- Events
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Events
Coming up: 11-17 December 11 December, Washington DC, US. THE WORLD BANK, THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE TRADE AGENDA LOOKING FORWARD. The ongoing global financial crisis and economic slowdown has important consequences for world trade, which is expected to decline for the first time since the early 1980s. The Director of the World Bank’s international trade…
- Resources
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Resources
LOOKING BEYOND DOHA? NEW THINKING ON TRADE POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT. By Socialist Group in the European Parliament, December 2008. This booklet examines the link between development and trade by focusing on the future of the World Trade Organisation beyond the Doha Round of trade talks. In particular, contributions to the emerging debate on post-Doha prospects…
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Printer-Friendly Version of Bridges Weekly, Vol. 12 No. 42
Table of Contents I. LEAD STORIES - Planned WTO Mini-Ministerial Postponed As Prospects for Doha Deal Diminish - New NAMA Text Released Amidst Doha Gloom - Revised Ag Text Reflects Progress, But Final Deal Still Elusive - Obama to Pick Becerra for Top Trade Post, Officials Say II. IN BRIEF - EU: 16 Developing Countries to Receive GSP+ Market Access Benefits - US,…