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DOHA ROUND: TALKS STALL, NEGOTIATING GROUPS TO RESUME IN 2004
On 9 December, General Council (GC) Chair Carlos Perez del Castillo (Uruguay) wrapped up a second set of informal talks he has been conducting since the failure of the fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancun in September, concluding that Members would not be able to relaunch talks at a 15 December GC meeting. Instead he told…
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Singapore Issues: Talks Marked By Confusion, Disagreement On Way Forward
WTO Members have not reached any agreement on how to deal with the controversial Singapore issues — investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation — despite a series of informal consultations last week. The negotiating environment was, according to one trade delegate, "shrouded in confusion and lack of clarity". Two informal consultations…
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Services Week Shows Dynamism Despite Stalled Doha Talks
A few ’sparks’ to the otherwise frozen Doha round of trade negotiations appeared during meetings of the WTO Services Council and its subsidiary bodies from 2-5 December. In the request and offer phase of the services negotiations, and in the negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) rules and on domestic regulation,…
- In Brief
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In Brief
EUROPEAN FOOD COMMITTEE FAILS TO END DE FACTO BIOTECH MORATORIUM At an 8 December meeting, the European Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health failed to reach the qualified majority required for approving Syngenta’s Bt-11 biotech maize (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 14 November 2003). Thirty-three members voted in favour, 29 against the approval…
- WTO in Brief
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US Backs Off On Steel Tariffs
US President Bush announced on Thursday, 4 December, that he would scrap steel tariffs to obey a WTO ruling handed down earlier on this month. His move prevented a possible "trade war" with the EU, China, Japan and other trading partners, who were threatening to impose retaliatory economic sanctions worth over USD 2 billion…
- 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: 11-19 December 24 November to 14 December. SUSTRA E-FORUM ON INSTITUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN TRADE. This e-forum will…
- Resources
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Resources
WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003. By the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This report has been specially prepared for the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, Geneva, 10-12 December 2003). This year’s report examines the specific issue of measuring access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). ITU has long been involved…