Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest

Volume 5 • Number 40 28th November 2001

  • Note To Subscribers; New ICTSD E-Publication
    Due to technical difficulties, this issue of BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest was sent on Wednesday evening rather than its usual sendoff on Tuesday evening, GMT+1. We apologise for the delay. NEW ICTSD PUBLICATION ON TRADE AND BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES. ‘BRIDGES Trade BioRes’ is produced in collaboration with IUCN - The World Conservation Union, and its Commission…
  • Negotiations In Holding Pattern As Countries Await Trade Negotiations Committee
    WTO Members have yet to begin significant negotiations on areas mandated by the Ministerial Declaration agreed to in Doha on 14 November at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference. Instead, staff from trade missions in Geneva and ministries in capitals remain in a study phase with regard to the text, trade sources say, and are using…
  • Budget Committee Begins Translating Doha Agenda Into Practice
    The WTO Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration met on Friday 23 November for the first of a series of meetings to develop a plan on how to translate the technical assistance (TA) provisions of the Doha Ministerial Declaration in the organisation’s budget. In a preliminary exchange of views, Members discussed a proposal by WTO…
  • Services Week: Time Running Out For Safeguard Measures
    As WTO Members entered a new so-called ‘Services Week’ yesterday — the last of 2001 — the question of the establishment of an Emergency Safeguard Mechanism (ESM) under the GATS appears as the most urgent and contentious issue on the agenda, with the deadline for its adoption expiring on 15 March 2002. While this question…
  • Dispute Settlement Update: Shrimp-Turtle & US-Can Lumber
    The WTO Appellate Body (AB) final ruling in the so-called ‘Shrimp- Turtle’ case continues to draw criticism as several Members voiced their concern at the occasion of its adoption during a 21 November Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) meeting. Meanwhile, US and Canadian negotiators are stepping up efforts to find an extra-judicial solution to their longstanding…
  • India, EU Boost Trade And Investment Ties
    During a 22-23 November EU-India summit held in New Delhi, India, the two WTO Members agreed to advance their trade and investment relations in order to put aside a previous logjam in their bilateral talks resulting from, inter alia, deep discrepancies on textiles and on environment and competition rules at the WTO. Instead, the commitments…
  • Regional Trade Developments in the Wake of Doha
    Chile seeks FTAs with US and EU On 27 November, Chile and the US began their ninth round of talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries with intellectual property, government procurement and the services sector on the agenda. According to the US, the contentious issues of labour and environment, as well as…
  • In Brief
  • In Brief
    US Will Not Grant Zero-Tariff Access For Bangladeshi Textiles US Ambassador Mary Ann Peters said on 13 November that the US would not be able to grant zero-tariff entry for Bangladeshi textiles due to economic recession in the US. The US imports 40 percent of Bangladesh’s annual clothing exports worth approximately $US 5 billion and which…
  • WTO in Brief
  • WTO In Brief
    Mexico Forwards Its Candidacy To Host Next Ministerial Conference On 27 November, Mexico became the first WTO Member since the trade body’s last Ministerial from 9-14 November in Doha, Qatar, to offer to host the next Ministerial Conference, scheduled for 2003. South Africa has also reportedly expressed interest in acting as a host for the meeting,…
  • Events
  • Events
    For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar at: http://www.ictsd.org/cal/index.htm. Coming Up This Week 26-30 November, Dakar, Senegal: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE CULTURAL APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA. This event will be held by the African Itinerant College for Culture and Development (AICCD) in collaboration…
  • Resources
  • Resources
    If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy for review by the BRIDGES staff to Hugo Cameron, hcameron@ictsd.ch. Submissions of publications to ICTSD’s documentation centre would also be welcome (contact Marc Galvin, mgalvin@ictsd.ch). THE GLOBAL EU: VISIONS FOR THE WTO. By…