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Trade Talks: Chair Castillo Sets Out Process Forward
WTO Members convened in a Heads of Delegation (HOD) meeting on Tuesday, 14 October, to consider the way forward after talks collapsed at the ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September. Although the meeting was the first to be held at the level of heads of delegation, Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi and the Chair of the…
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G-20 Meets In Buenos Aires, Calls For Resumption Of Trade Talks
Members of the so called G-20 group of countries met on 10 October in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss the group’s post-Cancun agenda. While Argentina’s foreign ministry had invited all 22 current and former members of the informal alliance of developing country WTO Members, only twelve countries — including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba,…
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GATS: Discussions Continue Without A Finish Line On The Horizon
Two special (negotiating) sessions of the WTO Council for Trade in Services (CTS) were held on 6 October and 9 October, prior to a Heads of Delegation (HOD) meeting called by General Council Chair Carlos Perez del Castillo on the general process forward after the collapse of trade…
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ASEAN Members Agree To Deepen Integration
The ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an ambitious accord on 7 October to establish an economic community similar to that of the EU. The agreement, called the "Bali Concord II," was signed during the ninth ASEAN Ministerial Summit held from 7-8 October…
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Canada To Amend Patent Act, Allow Generic Medicine Exports
The Canadian government announced in late September that it would amend patent laws to allow generic pharmaceutical companies to produce and export patent-protected drugs to countries unable to manufacture their own (see BRIDGES Weekly, 1 October 2003, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03- 10-01/inbrief.htm#2). This initiative spurred a strong response, with Canadian NGOs,…
- In Brief
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Report Highlights Sustainable Coffee Market Growth
EU MOVES TO CONTROL ILLEGAL LOGGING Meeting on 13 October, EU farm ministers instructed the European Commission to draft legislation to allow only certified legal timber imports to enter the region. This was an initiative to clean up the estimated €1.2 billion in illegally sourced timber imports that cross EU borders. Outlining the problem,…
- Resources
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Resources
A NEW BEGINNING FOR WTO AFTER CANCUN. By Mark Ritchie and Kristin Dawkins (Foreign Policy in Focus, October 2003). According to the authors, the WTO meeting in Cancun was one of the most successful international meetings in years because it redefined how trade can benefit the poor and how the developing world can be real…