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WTO Members Fail to Make Progress at Mini-Ministerial
Trade Ministers from 31 WTO Member countries met from 21-22 June in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a mini-ministerial meeting, seeking to find solutions to the current deadlock under the Doha round of trade negotiations. WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi expressed his concern at the lack of movement and political will in negotiations, especially with regard to…
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Singapore Issue Controversy Continues
Meeting from 12-13 June, the WTO Council for Trade in Goods focused its work on trade facilitation, with Members continuing to disagree on the need for a negotiated multilateral framework on this issue. The WTO Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement met on 18 June, where delegates are also divided over launching negotiations at…
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US Takes Next Step In EU Biotech Challenge
The US on 19 June announced it would request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to examine its complaint against the EC’s continued de facto moratorium on the approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), after tUS-EC consultations had proven inconclusive (see BRIDGES Weekly, 14 May 2003). Pressure is also growing on Egypt to…
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Rules: New 'friends of anti-dumping' proposals; Chile submission on fisheries subsidies
The WTO Negotiating Group on Rules met from 18-19 June to consider a number of submissions on issues related to anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures. On fisheries subsidies, delegates addressed a new submission by Chile. Chile submission on fisheries subsidies Chile — a member of the "Friends of Fish" group, which also includes the US, Argentina, Iceland,…
- In Brief
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Standards gap hurts African Countries
STILL NO BREAK-THROUGH IN EU CAP REFORM When EU agriculture ministers met from 17 to 19 June in Luxemburg to finally reach an agreement on the future of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), talks again collapsed. A group of EU member states, led by France, declared on the last day of the meeting that they…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO Director-General Sets Up Advisory Group Of Experts
CANCUN PREPARATORY PROCESS SHIFTS TO INFORMAL MODE Trade negotiators in Geneva have started to meet informally, under the guidance of WTO Director and TNC Chair Supachai Panitchpakdi and General Council Chair Carlos Perez del Castillo. These Heads of Delegation meetings — attended by one or two persons from each missions — are being convened on a…
- Events
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Events
For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. Coming Up: 26 June - 2 July 23-27 June, Trondheim, Norway: FOURTH TRONDHEIM CONFERENCE ON BIODIVERSITY. Technology transfer and capacity building are to be major themes of the…
- Resources
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Resources
EXPANDING THE WTO RULES? SHOULD THERE BE WTO RULES ON COMPETITION, INVESTMENT, TRADE FACILITATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT? By the Federal Trust for Education and Research (June 2003). The report explores the need for and scope of any negotiation on WTO rules on the Singapore Issues - investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and…