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Obama: US Must ‘Seek New Markets Aggressively’
US President Barack Obama has spoken out forcefully in favour of opening up trade, in perhaps his highest-profile speech of the year. “We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are,” Obama said in his State of the Union address on Wednesday night last week, adding that “if America sits on the sidelines…
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G33 Paper on SSM Sparks Exporters' Ire
Members of the G33 group of import-sensitive developing countries aired their concerns about weaknesses in the Special Safeguard Mechanism, which would allow developing countries to raise tariffs in the case of an import surge or price depression, in a document released last week. In the face of strong criticism from exporters, the group laid out…
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Davos Ministers' Meeting Issues Familiar Call
A group of trade ministers from the world’s major economies met in Davos, Switzerland on Saturday to discuss strategies and assess the politics of concluding the WTO’s long-running Doha Round of trade talks. The ministers, who were joined by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, generated no major surprises at their gathering on the sidelines of the…
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Closed-Door Anti-Counterfeiting Talks Continue in Mexico
Since mid-2008, a handful of mostly industrialised countries have been negotiating a secretive treaty on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, ostensibly aimed at fighting counterfeiting. Participating governments, including the US, the EU, and Japan,* agreed to shroud the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks in near-total secrecy, more so even than is customary for international trade…
- In Brief
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Countries Take First Step to Comply with Copenhagen Accord
Just seven weeks after the conclusion of the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen, at least 55 countries responded to the Copenhagen Accord’s call for countries to submit their voluntary mitigation plans to the UN climate change convention. The Copenhagen Accord, the primary outcome document of the December climate talks, has not won the support…
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Brazil, Australia, and Thailand Condemn Extra EU Sugar Exports
Three of the world’s leading sugar producers — Brazil, Australia, and Thailand — have joined together to criticise EU plans to export an additional 500,000 tonnes of sugar, which they believe are above quota limits set by current WTO agriculture agreements. The EU’s plans, which coincide with a bumper crop of beet sugar in Europe…
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Indigenous Groups Resist EU-Malaysia Timber Trade Deal
The European Union and Malaysia had hoped to conclude negotiations on deal to combat trade in illegal timber by the end of 2009, but the deadline has been pushed back to this summer. Government officials report that there are just a few technical details to resolve, but indigenous groups say the deal now on the…
- WTO in Brief
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Vietnam Initiates First-Ever WTO Dispute, Targeting the US
Vietnam has requested WTO consultations with the United States over Washington’s anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese shrimp. The move marks the first time that Vietnam has ever filed a complaint with the global trade body’s dispute settlement system. The complaint centres on anti-dumping duties of as much as 25 percent that the US has slapped on imports…
- Events
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Events
3-5 February, Geneva, Switzerland. UNCTAD MULTI-YEAR MEETING ON INVESTMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT (SECOND SESSION). The purpose of this expert meeting is to bring together experts, government policymakers, and representatives of transnational corporations, civil society and academia to address the development implications of investments from both foreign and domestic sources. The meeting will examine three…
- Resources
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Resources
CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPING COUNTRY AGRICULTURE: AN OVERVIEW OF EXPECTED IMPACTS, ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION CHALLENGES, AND FUNDING REQUIREMENTS. By Jodie Keane, Sheila Page, Alpha Kergna, and Jane Kennan. International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council, December 2009. This issue brief was released by the ICTSD-IPC Platform…