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Final WSSD Prep Meeting Breaks Down Over Trade And Finance
Delegates at the fourth and last official preparatory meeting (PrepCom IV, 27 May - 7 June, Bali, Indonesia) for the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, 26 August - 1 September) fell far short of their intended goal to finalise the Plan of Implementation for WSSD, with issues related to trade and finance, globalisation…
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'Right To Food' Pushes FAO Closer To Trade Debate
As BRIDGES Weekly went to press, representatives of some 180 nations and the EU were convening in Rome at the 10-13 June World Food Summit - Five Years Later (WFS-FYL) held by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). At the meeting, FAO members are committed to reversing current trends away from effective poverty and…
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WTO Environment Committee Zeroes In On Scope Of Negotiations
The WTO’s Committee on Trade and Environment met on 11-12 June in a special (negotiating) session where Members focused on the scope of negotiations outlined in paragraph 31(i), (ii) and (iii) of the Doha Declaration (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 March 2002). Discussion centred around proposals from Australia, Argentina and Switzerland the US and New Zealand. Background In…
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Services: No Progress On Horizontal Issues As Members Prepare For Request/Offer
From 3-7 June, Members convened at the WTO Council for Trade in Services (CTS) and its subsidiary bodies for a short one-week services cluster to advance discussions on sectoral proposals as well as on horizontal issues such as assessment of services liberalisation, credits for autonomous liberalisation, the development of an emergency safeguard measure (ESM) and…
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WTO Tech Transfer Group Setting Up Work Programme
On 11 June, the WTO’s Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology (WGTTT) met to further discuss a possible work programme for the body. At this second session, Members also heard presentations on country experiences from Brazil and China and had further discussions on two background pieces prepared by the WTO Secretariat surrounding the…
- In Brief
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In Brief
ZIMBABWE BECOMES FIRST COUNTRY TO INVOKE DECLARATION ON TRIPS AND PUBLIC HEALTH On 27 May, Zimbabwe became the first state to declare a national HIV/AIDS emergency — thereby freeing itself from its obligations to respect relevant HIV/AIDS drugs patents under the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief
CANADA INITIATES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF NEW WTO NEGOTIATIONS The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) announced that the government would conduct a strategic environmental assessment of the new Doha Round of negotiations at the WTO. In a notice published on 8 June, the government indicated…
- Events
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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: 11-18 June 10-11 June, Interlaken, Switzerland: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON AGRICULTURE AND BIODIVERSITY. Sponsored by Pro Natura and Friends of the Earth, specialists will address the role of agriculture in the…
- Resources
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ICTSD Publications
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 Matteo Rizzolli, mrizzolli@ictsd.ch). BRIDGES MONTHLY REVIEW. Published by ICTSD,…