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India Calls for Narrow WTO Mandate; Reaches QR Agreement With US
WTO Director-General Mike Moore visited India last week to consult with Indian officials on resuming talks toward launching a new round of global trade talks. Mr. Moore vowed that a new round of global trade talks was inevitable. “We will launch a new round. The only question is when”, Mr. Moore told a business audience…
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Uncertain Future for WTO AG Talks
Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes earlier this month said Brazil could miss out on US$11 billion in additional agricultural export revenues over the next three years resulting from WTO Members’ failure in Seattle to launch global talks on agriculture. Brazil is among the strongest proponents for greater liberalisation of the farm sector,…
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Members Call for Reform at WTO
Trade officials from Japan and the EU on 13 January reconfirmed their commitment to work together in efforts to launch a new round of WTO trade talks. The two WTO Members intend to press their case when the WTO General Council meets on 7 February in Geneva, and intend to use upcoming international forums to…
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Biosafety Talks Resume This Week
Negotiators from over 150 countries are scheduled to meet from 20-28 January in Montreal for an Extraordinary Conference of the Parties (ExCOP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Negotiators will attempt to conclude an international biosafety protocol to ensure the safe transfer, handling, use and disposal of living modified organisms (LMOs, often referred to…
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EC Outlines Plan for EU Food Authority
The European Commission on 12 January announced plans for an EU-wide food safety body. The European Food Authority would serve an advisory role to the EC: the food body would have no regulatory powers, with the EC and European Parliament presiding over law making. The proposed food body would therefore differ from the US Food…
- In Brief
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In Brief
A plan to abolish import taxes later this year is under consideration by the Marshall Islands. Finance Minister Tony deBrum said that if adopted the measure would help bring the country in line with a proposed South Pacific Free Trade Zone and eliminate the rising costs of enforcing the import taxes. “Marshall Islands considers abolishing…
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On the Move
Ernesto Enkerlin of Monterrey, Mexico, has been appointed by Julia Carabias, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries, to the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Mr. Enkerlin is a well- known ecologist and author, and is currently the Executive Director of Pronatura Noreste. The JPAC is composed…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief
The EU will apply for a waiver at the WTO to continue its preferential market access arrangement (known as the Lomé Agreement ) with 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, likely at the next meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods, scheduled for 24 January. From 2-3 February, Ministers from the EU and…
- Events
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Events
For a more complete list of events, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar at http://www.ictsd.org/html/calendar.htm WTO MEETINGS An updated list of forthcoming WTO meetings is posted athttp://www.wto.org/wto/about/meets.doc. Please bear in mind that dates and times of WTO meetings are often changed, and that the WTO does not always announce the important informal meetings of different WTO bodies.…
- Resources
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Resources
WTO IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: COMMENTARY, CASE LAW AND LEGAL TEXTS. December 1999. By the Academy of Business Studies and World Trade Centre. This book discusses issues such at the WTO framework, trade in goods, trade in services, TRIPs, the dispute settlement mechanism and new issues arising for the Seattle Round. 700pp. $160.00. To order…