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Lamy Calls for Two-Track Approach to Wrap up Doha
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has called for a new approach to bringing the nearly eight-year-old Doha Round of world trade talks to a close. The two-track negotiations that Lamy outlined at a meeting of the WTO’s General Council on Tuesday appear to represent a compromise between two competing views of how the talks should proceed. “My…
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EU-Andean Talks Inch forward, but Ecuador Threatens to Pull out
Negotiations toward a trade-opening deal between the EU and a group of Andean countries hit another snag this week when Ecuador’s president publicly denounced the talks, calling them ‘biased’. The comment came just over two weeks after negotiators from both sides met in Brussels for the third round of negotiations towards an ‘Association Agreement’ between the…
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WHO Tackles Intellectual Property, R&D Treaty
Members of the World Health Organization gathered for their 62nd annual assembly at WHO headquarters in Geneva last week. The meeting was held from 18-22 May, but did not extend into a second week as originally planned, due to the recent outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus. But members still found time for intense discussions…
- In Brief
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India, Mercosur Deepen Economic Ties
A preferential trading agreement between India and the Mercosur countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is set to take effect on 1 June. The pact, which will lower tariffs on a wide range of goods, is intended to serve as a stepping stone toward the establishment of a full-fledged free trade area among the signatories. Under…
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EU Ministers Support Radical Fisheries Reform
European fisheries ministers have reached a consensus on the need for radical reform of the EU’s controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Those attending the European Commission’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on Monday acknowledged that the rules governing the EU fisheries sector are flawed and should be decentralised to give member states and the…
- WTO in Brief
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Lamy Retains WTO’s 4 Deputy DGs
The WTO’s four deputy director-generals will retain their positions for new terms of office, Pascal Lamy, the head of the global trade body, told WTO Members on Tuesday. Alejandro Jara of Chile, Valentine Rugwabiza of Rwanda, Harsha Singh of India, and Rufus Yerxa of the United States will begin their new terms on 1 October, Lamy…
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TRIPS Council Debates Way Forward
An informal meeting of the WTO committee on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) was urged to move on from broad discussions to tackle the ‘substantive’ issues at issue in the talks. The chair of the talks, Ambassador Trevor Clarke of Barbados, warned delegates that they should not be complacent in the talks. The issue at…
- Events
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Events
28-29 May, Montreal, Canada. TREATY REGIMES IN PRACTICE: DOMESTIC IMPLMENTATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Sponsored by the CISDL with the McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Hydro Quebec and Oppenheimer Research Chairs and the International Law Association, this event will focus on recent trends and best practices in domestic laws to implement the sustainable…
- Resources
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Resources
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC. UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, April 2009. The study examines the environmental, economic and social challenges that are the roots of the Asia Pacific region’s food insecurity and suggests a regional framework of action to be taken by governments and…