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Agriculture Consultations: Chair Reports Lack Of Engagement
Carlos Perez del Castillo, Chair of the General Council (GC), held informal "green room" consultations on agriculture with a group of around 30 key WTO Members from 20-21 November. Chair Perez del Castillo — who had hoped Members would negotiate on various elements contained in the most recent draft language on agriculture (see BRIDGES Weekly,…
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Developing Countries 'Taken By Surprise' At Talks On Singapore Issues
After a 24 November informal meeting on trade-facilitation — one of the four so called Singapore issues, which also comprise investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement — many of the twenty invited countries expressed surprise at the strategy of the Chair. At the meeting, WTO Deputy-Director General Rufus Yerxa, chairing the meeting on behalf…
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FTAA Ministerial Leaves Future Wide Open; Us Moves Toward New Bilaterals
The eighth Ministerial meeting of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) wrapped up early on 20 November with the adoption of a Declaration that by all accounts avoided tough decisions and left many options on the table. The Ministerial followed lower-level talks between the 34 future FTAA parties (see BRIDGES Weekly, 19 November…
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TRIPS Council Shows Little Progress On Health And Biodiversity
Discussions on public health at the 17-18 November meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) lacked the excitement of last year’s negotiations, and Members appeared to have given little thought to how to convert a 30 August 2003 Decision on paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration (on access to…
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DSU Review: Members React To Mexican Study
The WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) met for a special (negotiating) session from 13-14 November, focusing on a study by Mexico that diagnosed some of the problems of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The Mexican paper highlighted three sets of problems related to compliance, access to the dispute settlement system and procedural issues. Members…
- In Brief
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Report Released On NAFTA's Impacts
EC ADOPTS COMMUNICATION ON POST-CANCUN STRATEGY The European Commission adopted a strategy paper on the post-Cancun process on 26 November. According to EC Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, the EC will now re-engage at the WTO, and work to get the current round of trade talks back on track. The strategy paper is being circulated among…
- WTO in Brief
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AG Committee Discusses US Farm Bill, Assistance To LDCs
The WTO Committee on Agriculture (CoA) held its last regular session of the year on 20 November. The session lasted three hours and included discussions on the 2002 US Farm Bill, cereal imports for Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) and least developed countries (LDCs), as well as a financing initiative proposed by the IMF…
- 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. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. Coming Up: 27 November - 3 December 26-27 November, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: ELECTRONICS RECYCLING SUMMIT. This senior executive Pan-European…
- Resources
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Resources
AFTER CANCUN: POSSIBILITIES FOR A NEW NORTH-SOUTH GRAND BARGAIN ON TRADE. By Thomas Palley (Foreign Policy in Focus, November 2003). According to the author, the failure of the Cancun WTO ministerial may eventually come to be viewed as marking the end of the current global trade agenda. Given the existing lack of multilateral consensus, the…