Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest

Volume 6 • Number 42 12th December 2002

  • 'Development' Round In The Balance At WTO General Council, TNC Meetings
    As BRIDGES Weekly went to press, the WTO General Council was in session for its final meeting of 2002, and had addressed over half of its 26- item agenda over 10-11 December. While progress was made on some smaller issues, such as accessions, the body remained stuck over major…
  • TRIPS And Health Still Blocked As Deadline Nears
    Negotiations on paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health are continuing at a snail’s pace, with little willingness on all sides to move on the key outstanding issues. While the importance of these negotiations for the so-called "Doha Development Agenda" are generally acknowledged,…
  • Nearing Deadline Again, S&D Review Still Searching For Consensus
    After a gruelling ten months of meeting in special sessions as part of its mandated review of special and differential treatment (S&D) provisions, the WTO’s Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) met on 2- 3 December to consider the first draft of a report that must be submitted to…
  • WTO: India, Others Propose Rules On Conduct Of Multinational Enterprises
    Following a 4-5 December meeting of the WTO Working Group on Trade and Investment, developing countries remain widely noncommittal to the idea of launching WTO negotiations on multilateral rules for cross-border investment, despite efforts by the EC and Japan to convince them otherwise. India and Malaysia are strongly…
  • TRIMS Review Discusses Brazil-India Proposal On Spaces For Development Policy
    At the 22 November session of the WTO’s Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) (its last regular session of the year), Members discussed, inter alia, a joint Brazil-India submission that seeks to re-open spaces for developing countries to use certain trade-related investment measures in their development policies (see BRIDGES Weekly, 24 October). Tabled in the…
  • Developing Countries Raise Biodiversity Concerns In WIPO
    The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents met on 25-29 November in Geneva to continue negotiations on a possible treaty covering substantive patent law at the international level. Among the issues discussed were proposals by several developing countries calling for flexibility to implement measures in pursuit of public policy…
  • WTO: Services Council Adjourns Without Agreement On Autonomous Liberalisation
    Much to the disappointment of Council for Trade in Services (CTS) Special Session Chair Ambassador Jara, Members convening for a 9 December CTS negotiation meeting were again unable to agree on a Chair’s proposal on the establishment of modalities for obtaining ‘credits’ for autonomous liberalisation (AL) in the services sector. Jara’s most recent draft was…
  • WTO Resources
    FIRST JOINT WTO/OECD REPORT ON TRADE-RELATED TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CAPACITY BUILDING. Published by the WTO and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, November/December 2002. This document presents an overview of the technical assistance and capacity building priorities and activities of donor countries and relevant international organisations. It is supported by an online database…
  • In Brief
  • Latin America: Us And Chile Sign Bilateral Trade Agreement, South American FTA In The Works
    Chile and the US agreed on a comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement on Wednesday 11 December, following over ten years of negotiations. The agreement, which still has to be approved by the legislatures of the two countries, will immediately eliminate tariffs on 85 percent of goods and 75 percent of agricultural products traded between…
  • WTO in Brief
  • UK Legislature Launches Inquiry On Trade And Development In WTO Round
    On 26 November, a committee of the UK House of Commons agreed to undertake an inquiry into trade and development, particularly to aspects of the WTO’s Doha agenda and Members’ commitments to making the Doha round of trade negotiations a "development round". According to a press statement, the House of Commons’ International Development Committee will…
  • 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. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. Coming Up This Week: 11-18 December 2002 9-17 December, Geneva, Switzerland: FOURTH SESSION OF THE WIPO INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND GENETIC RESOURCES,…
  • 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 resources@ictsd.ch. Submissions of publications to ICTSD’s documentation centre would also be welcomed (see mailing address below). EARTHSCAN READER ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Edited by…