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G20 Leaders Call for Ministers to Meet on Doha in Early 2010
Emerging from a two-day summit in Pittsburgh last week, leaders from the Group of 20 rich and emerging economies repeated calls for the WTO’s Doha Round of trade talks to be concluded before the end of 2010, and instructed their trade ministers to meet early next year to assess progress toward a deal. “We ask our…
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NAMA Talks Spin Wheels While Rules Group Finds Some ‘Common Ground’
As the frequency of meetings, if not the pace of substantive progress, picks up at the WTO, industrial goods negotiators met last week to discuss non-tariff barriers to trade and sector-specific liberalisation proposals. Meanwhile, negotiators in the rules group made tentative steps forward in the long-controversial negotiations on fisheries disciplines. The 23-24 September meeting of the…
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WTO Hears Out Civil Society at Annual Public Forum
The WTO threw open its doors to civil society this week, welcoming more than a thousand participants to its annual Public Forum, held this year from 28 to 30 September at the organisation’s headquarters on the shores of Lake Geneva. “It is to your needs and aspirations that this organisation must cater,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy…
- In Brief
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World Bank Chief Calls for Shift in Multilateral System
Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, warned against over-confidence in the US dollar and called for a new approach to managing global trade in a speech in Washington on Monday. The world is in the midst of an upheaval as momentous as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the French Revolution, he said…
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EU Ministers to Meet over Milk Crisis
Less than two weeks after the start of a European dairy farmers’ strike, Sweden’s agriculture minister said that he would meet with other European agriculture ministers in Luxembourg on 5 October to discuss the ongoing milk crisis. The European Milk Board welcomed the news of the meeting, saying that it will provide ministers with a…
- WTO in Brief
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Geneva Referendum Approves WTO Extension
Geneva citizens approved a proposed extension of the World Trade Organization’s headquarters in a referendum on Sunday. The measure passed with a 62 percent majority vote. The outcome of the referendum was met with cheers at the WTO, which has had to move 100 of its employees to a different building in the centre of Geneva…
- Events
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Events
29 September - 3 October, Dubrovnik, Croatia. FIFTH DUBROVNIK CONFERENCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY, WATER AND ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS. The conference is dedicated to the improvement and dissemination of knowledge on methods, policies and technologies for increasing the sustainability of development, taking into account its economic, environmental and social pillars, as well as methods for assessing…
- Resources
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Resources
IS WORLD TRADE LAW A BARRIER TO SAVING OUR CLIMATE? By Friends of the Earth Europe and the Centre for International Environmental Law, September 2009. As the UNFCCC climate negotiations progress and the WTO ministerial approaches, the nexus between climate-related measures and trade rules becomes even more significant. This presents challenges and opportunities for both…