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G20 Leaders Boost Trade Finance, Renew Vow to Resist Protectionism
In the face of the steepest drop in world trade in 60 years, leaders from the Group of 20 economic powers agreed last week to provide funding for US$ 250 billion worth of international trade flows. The heads of state also reiterated the vow they made in November not to establish any new barriers to…
- In Brief
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USTR Releases ACTA ‘Summary’, Civil Society Wants More
The office of the US Trade Representative has released new information on ongoing negotiations toward a plurilateral agreement to combat piracy and counterfeiting. But members of civil society say that the USTR’s ‘summary’ of the talks does not quell their fears that such an agreement could ultimately hinder access to affordable medicines and criminalise acts…
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South Korea Pushes Trade Deals with US, EU on Summit Sidelines
South Korean officials engaged in high-level dialogue on two major potential free trade agreements, one with the United States and the other with the European Union, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London last week.US officials signalled that a conclusion may be within reach on the so-called KORUS deal, but the agreement with…
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Canada, US Look to Restrict Shipping Emissions
Canada and the US have asked the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) to establish a massive shipping pollution buffer zone extending 370 km off the two country’s coastlines. Under the plan, all ships engaged in international trade that either call at ports in or navigate through the ‘Emissions Control Area’ (ECA) would be forced to…
- WTO in Brief
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Ambassadors from New Zealand, Uruguay in the Running for Chair of WTO Farm Talks
The WTO’s negotiating committee on agriculture is in need of a new chair, and it appears as though New Zealand ambassador David Walker may be the leading candidate, although the decision has yet to be finalised. Ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmés of Uruguay is also in the running for the role. Walker “is certainly considered as the…
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WTO Urges EU to Liberalise Agriculture, Services Sectors
The European Union, the world’s leading exporter and second-largest importer of goods, will play a key role in shortening and reversing the current global economic slowdown, the WTO said in a report released Monday. But Brussels should further liberalise its services and agricultural sectors to stimulate the bloc’s recovery from the losses that it has…
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Rules Group Tackles Fisheries ‘Roadmap’
An informal meeting of the WTO’s Negotiating Group on Rules focused exclusively on the committee’s negotiations on fisheries subsidies last week. Although the chair praised delegates for their “serious engagement” on the issue, progress toward new legal language to limit subsidies that contribute to overfishing remains uncertain. “It is too early to predict when [the chair]…
- Events
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Events
14-16 April 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ON LATIN AMERICA: IMPLICATIONS OF THE GLOBAL ECNOMIC CRISIS FOR LATIN AMERICA. High commodity prices, favourable financial conditions and the hard-won economic reforms of the 1990s boosted regional economic growth to an average of 5 percent in the past years, with low inflation and strong…
- Resources
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Resources
GLOBALISATION AND EMERGING ECONOMIES. By the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, March 2009. This policy brief shows that Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa (the BRIICS) have significantly reduced their border protection and have been expanding their exports much faster than leading developed countries. But the authors argue that a “second generation”…