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Fight over Generic Drug Seizure Takes Centre Stage at TRIPS Council Meeting
Developing countries ramped up their criticisms of the EU last week, saying that its recent seizure of a shipment of generic drugs en route from India to Brazil violated trade rules on intellectual property and had significant implications for the availability of affordable medicines in poor countries. The criticisms were made at a meeting of the…
- In Brief
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Kirk, Pledging Strict Enforcement, Looks Set to Take Top US Trade Job
Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, Texas, appears destined to become the next US Trade Representative following a positive hearing before the US Senate Finance Committee on 9 March. Kirk’s bid had run into problems in early March when the vetting process turned up tax errors that had the former Dallas mayor paying US$10,000 in…
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World Bank Predicts Steepest Drop in Trade in 80 Years
World trade is set to register its first drop since 1982 and its biggest decline in 80 years, the World Bank said in a report released this week. Thus far, some of the sectors that have been most affected include urban-based exporters, construction, mining and manufacturing. The sharpest losses are expected to be felt in East…
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China Boosts Agriculture Spending in Face of Global Crisis
China’s response to the global financial crisis, a stimulus package worth US$ 585 billion over two years, includes a five-fold increase in spending on agriculture, boosting it from US$18 billion to US$106 billion. The government is expected to spend nearly US$ 26 billion to stock commodities such as grains and edible oils. China’s rural population of…
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MEPs Call for EU-India FTA to be Finalised Next Year
The European Parliament’s Trade Committee wants to see a free trade agreement between the EU and India finalised before the end of 2010, according to report from the committee that was released last week. The document expressed the lawmakers’ disappointment with the slow pace of the talks between the two countries. Negotiations toward a Comprehensive Economic…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO to Hear Mexican Complaint over US Tuna Ban
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body will consider a complaint from Mexico that US rules on ‘dolphin-safe’ tuna unfairly discriminate against its exports, according to an agenda for the 20 March meeting of the DSB that was released Tuesday. Mexico City believes it has a 90 percent chance of winning the suit, the Mexican news agency…
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WTO Calls on Brazil to Focus on Market Competition
Despite recent economic reforms, Brazil should promote market competition and guard against protectionism to help sustain its economic growth, a WTO review of Brazil’s trade policies concluded this week. To that end, Brasilia should by reduce import prohibitions and help ensure greater predictability for foreign investment and trade, the report said. The Trade Policy Review Body,…
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Canada Threatens WTO Suit as EU Edges toward Seal Ban
A committee of European lawmakers voted last week to ban all seal imports into the EU on the grounds that the hunt is inhumane, provoking a strong reaction from the Canadian government, which maintains that such a ban would cripple a key domestic industry. “We have told [the EU] repeatedly that we will exercise all our…
- Events
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Events
12-13 March 2009, Manila, Philippines. LAUNCH OF THE CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FACILITY FOR DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS. This conference, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), aims to support countries in the Asia and the Pacific region in their efforts to improve development effectiveness while implementing the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA). This event…
- Resources
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Resources
HANDBOOK ON TRADE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. By Kevin P. Gallagher and Edward Elgar, 2009. The volume will serve as a guide for scholars new to the field as well as students and policy-makers needing a quick reference to the research on the interface between trade and environment. Edited by GDAE Senior Researcher and Boston University…