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WTO In Midst Of Negotiating Flurry
WTO Members are in the midst of two busy weeks of negotiations prior to a final pre-Cancun General Council meeting to be held from 25-26 August. General Council Chair Perez del Castillo has been conducting Heads of Delegation (HOD) meetings every morning, beginning on 11 August after a two-week WTO recess. These meetings focus on…
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Agriculture: Real Negotiations Start As EC, US Table Joint Modalities Text
In a long-awaited move, and in an attempt to break the longstanding deadlock in the WTO agriculture negotiations, the two major players in the debate — i.e. the European Communities and the US — on 13 August presented Members with a "Joint Text" setting out approaches and parameters for a possible modalities framework for further…
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Singapore Issues: Staunch Opposition, New African Proposal
Opposition to commencing talks on the so called Singapore issues — investment, competition, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement — remains strong among many WTO Members as the date for the Cancun Ministerial Conference draws near. An informal Heads of Delegation (HOD) consultation on 15 August failed to bridge Members’ sharply polarised positions. General…
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Members Struggle To Reach Pre-Cancun S&D Early Harvest
Returning after a two-week break, WTO Heads of Delegations met informally on 13, 18, and 19 August to discuss the review on special and differential treatment (S&D) provisions for developing countries (see BRIDGES Weekly, 28 July 2003). The talks resulted in the number of specific proposals agreed upon growing from 15 to 17. The new…
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North-South Divide Persists As WTO Market Access Talks Move Towards Cancun
Gaps between developed and developing countries on how to structure negotiations on liberalisation of industrial goods continue to hold back agreement on a modalities text prior to Cancun. As BRIDGES Weekly went to press, market access talks were revolving around a 1.5-page informal paper that would appear as an annex to a new draft Ministerial…
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William Kennedy New CEC Executive Director
On 19 June, the Council of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) announced the appointment of William V. Kennedy for a three-year term as Executive Director of the Secretariat of the CEC. Kennedy has held international environmental policy and management positions through most of his career, including with the European Bank for…
- In Brief
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South Asian Agenda For Cancun Ministerial
ACP TRADE MINISTERS ADOPT DECLARATION ON CANCUN The trade ministers from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries convened in Brussels from 31 July to 1 August to discuss their positions on the issues on the agenda for the fifth WTO Ministerial conference in Cancun in September. They adopted a declaration that…
- WTO in Brief
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Nepal Ready To Enter WTO
US REQUESTS WTO PANEL IN US-EU BIOTECH DISPUTE The US at the 18 August meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) requested the establishment of a panel to rule on its complaint against the EU’s de facto moratorium on the approval of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and a number of marketing and import bans in…
- 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. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. ICTSD Event 11-12 September, Cancun, Mexico: CANCUN TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM. ICTSD and El Colegio de Mexico will be co-convening the Cancun…
- Resources
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Resources
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS FOR NON-PROFIT SOCIAL SERVICES. By Andrew Jackson and Matthew Sanger (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Canadian Council of Social Development, 2003). This new study concludes that government support for non-profit social services in Canada could be at risk, despite government assurances that social policies…