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EU, Latin Americans Call Truce in Long-Running Banana War
The European Union and a group of Latin American countries have reached an agreement to end tensions over the EU’s tariffs on banana imports, bringing to a close the longest international trade dispute in memory. At issue is the EU’s current banana import regime, which allows 775,000 tonnes of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific…
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Copenhagen Update: Draft Climate Texts Move toward Final Decision
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the chair of the ad-hoc working group for long-term cooperative action (LCA) gavelled a decision to conclude work on texts that are a basis for a new global accord on climate change, which parties have been negotiating over the last two years. The texts will now be considered,…
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NAMA Talks Make Progress on NTBs
WTO members took an “important step” forward in talks on preventing non-tariff measures such as health and safety standards from unduly restricting trade in manufactured goods, the chair of the Doha Round negotiating committee on industrial products said last week. Luzius Wasescha, the Swiss ambassador to the WTO who chairs the negotiating group on non-agricultural market…
- In Brief
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UNITAID Approves Patent Pool for AIDS Drugs
The executive board of the drug-purchasing facility UNITAID has given a green light to the implementation of a patent pool meant to make critical AIDS drugs more widely available, and at lower prices, in the developing world. The board announced on 14 December that UNITAID will provide US$ 4 million over the next year to get…
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Obama Says US Ready to Join Asia-Pacific Trade Talks
The administration of US President Barack Obama notified Congress on Monday that it intends to negotiate a free trade agreement with a group of nations in the Asia-Pacific. It is the first bold trade-opening move of the Obama presidency. In letters to two prominent members of the US Congress dated 14 December, US Trade Representative Ron…
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WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Pushes Toward Text-Based Talks
After hard-fought negotiations during informal talks from 7 to 11 December, the committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization that deals with traditional knowledge came close to agreement on how its text-based negotiations should proceed. Under the guidance of newly elected chair Juan José Gómez Camacho of Mexico, the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic…
- WTO in Brief
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Countries Exchange Technical Notes on SSM
At an informal small-group meeting last Thursday convened by the chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations, trade negotiators exchanged ‘technical notes’ simulating how the proposed special safeguard mechanism could work in practice. The special safeguard mechanism, widely known as the SSM, is intended to allow developing countries to protect farmers in the event of import surges…
- Events
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Events
7-18 December, Copenhagen, Denmark. TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE EVENTS IN COPENHAGEN. This series of events, organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), are taking place on the sidelines of the official negotiations at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties. Topics that will be covered include the diffusion of climate-friendly technology, competitiveness,…
- Resources
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Resources
THE UNRELENTING PRESSURE OF PROTECTIONISM: THE 3RD GTA REPORT. By Simon Evenett. Global Trade Alert, 7 December 2009. At a time when more commentators are becoming cautiously optimistic about the prospects for 2010, this report from Global Trade Alert presents the latest data on the protectionist dynamics at work since the first G20 crisis-related Summit…