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Doha Talks Get New Energy at Cairns Group Meeting
Trade ministers meeting on the sidelines of a summit of the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters have breathed new life into the Doha Round of trade talks, which many had declared dead after a collapse in high-level negotiations in Geneva last summer. But officials emerging from this week’s meetings, which brought together the top trade…
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Trade Leaders Call for Fisheries Subsidies Reform on World Oceans Day
Key trade officials marked the occasion of the first World Oceans day by calling for reform of global fisheries subsidies. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk released separate statements recognising both the threat of overfishing and the role that subsidies play in contributing to the problem. Lamy stressed that the…
- In Brief
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Three Southern African Nations Sign Interim EPA with EU
Three members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - Lesotho, Swaziland, and Botswana - signed an interim economic partnership agreement, or EPA, with the European Union on 4 June. The deal will give the SADC countries access to EU markets while the parties negotiate a permanent EPA. Mozambique has also expressed its intention to…
- WTO in Brief
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Russia Abandons Unilateral Bid to Join WTO
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threw a curveball to the trade community yesterday with his announcement that Russia will abandon efforts to join the WTO as a single nation. Instead, Russia will seek entry as a new customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, to be launched 1 January 2010. Russia has been negotiating its terms…
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European Generic Drug Seizures Take Centre Stage at TRIPS Council Meeting
German custom officials seized a shipment of generic drug Amoxicillin that was passing through Frankfurt, Germany en route to the Republic of Vanuatu last month, adding fuel to an ongoing debate over whether European patent rules are inhibiting access to medicines in developing countries. The antibiotics, worth approximately €28,000, were held for four weeks before the…
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WTO OK’s 7 More Months of Ecuador’s Import Restrictions
Members of the WTO’s Balance-of-Payments Committee agreed last week to allow Ecuador to continue to impose import restrictions while the country struggles to bring its finances under control. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994 and the General Agreement on Trade in Services both allow WTO Members struggling with balance-of-payment difficulties to raise tariffs…
- Events
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Events
11 June, Geneva, Switzerland. THE ROLE OF OPEN MARKETS AND THE WTO IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS. As part of World Trade Week UK, the United Kingdom’s Mission in Geneva and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) are hosting an informal dialogue on the role of open markets and the WTO in…
- Resources
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Resources
ECONOMIC REPORT ON AFRICA 2009: DEVELOPING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE THROUGH REGIONAL VALUE CHAINS. Economic Commission for Africa, 2009. The Economic Report on Africa (ERA) is an annual publication that provides a comprehensive analysis of developments in African economies over the preceding year, and makes predictions about the following year. Jointly published by the United Nations Economic…