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WTO Development Committee Looking To Re-Invigorate Talks On S&D
On 1 April, the special (negotiating) session of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) — mandated to review all special and differential treatment (S&D) provisions for developing countries — met for the first time after the Cancun ministerial conference in September 2003. Hoping to avoid the pitfall of Members wading into well-entrenched positions,…
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Industrial Market Access Hinges On Agriculture Outcome
The WTO Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) met from 29-31 March, with delegates agreeing to seek to draft a negotiating framework by the end of July this year. The meeting, which failed to make any substantive progress, consisted of formal plenary sessions to start and wrap up the talks on 29 and 31…
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WTO Services Council: Members Find Services Offers Disappointing
The WTO Council on Trade in Services (CTS) met for a special (negotiating) session on 2 April, marking the end of two weeks of meetings of the bodies under the Services Council. At the meeting, Members generally signalled their disappointment with the results of the ongoing request-offer phase of the services negotiations. While developed countries…
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Informal Consultations On Singapore Issues Continuing
On Tuesday, 6 April, a ‘core group’ of developing countries met with WTO Deputy Director General Rufus Yerxa, who is conducting informal discussions on trade facilitation. Trade facilitation is one of the controversial Singapore issues, which also include investment, competition policy and transparency in government procurement. At a General Council (GC) meeting in February this year,…
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Energy Prices Holding Up Russia's WTO Bid
The WTO Working Party on the Accession of the Russian Federation met on 2 April, following a week of informal talks on Russia’s ten-year bid to join the WTO. Officials involved characterised the talks as intense, and while Members signalled that progress was made, key sticking points remain. Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development and…
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Food Security And Agricultural Trade In The Spotlight
At the annual UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, an expert appointed to report on the "right to food" took a tough position on the negative impact of agricultural trade under the WTO on small peasant farmers and their food security. Meanwhile, at a conference in Kampala, Ugandan President Museveni called on developed countries to…
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Chile-South Korea FTA In Force Despite Korean AG Concerns
On 1 April, a free trade agreement (FTA) between Chile and South Korea came into effect. The treaty is the first Korea has entered into, and its ratification was delayed three times due to farmer protests. Under the new treaty, Korea agreed to abolish tariffs on 87 percent of all industrial items and most agricultural,…
- In Brief
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Sensitive Seas Granted Special Protection From Shipping
TEXTILE EXPORTERS DISCUSS POST-QUOTA ERA From 5-7 April, over 80 delegates attended a meeting of the International Textile and Clothing Bureau (ITCB), an intergovernmental organisation comprised of developing country exporters of textiles and clothing. At the New Delhi meeting, participants discussed the phase-out of a quota regime for textiles and clothing by 31 December this…
- 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 at: http://www.ictsd.org/cal/index.htm. If you would like to submit an event, please email events@ictsd.ch. Coming Up: 8-21 April 13-15 April, New Delhi, India: AFRO-ASIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SEMINAR - FROM CANCUN TO SAO PAULO: THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE…
- Resources
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Resources
FREE TRADE - MYTH, REALITY AND ALTERNATIVES. By Graham Dunkley (Zed Books, February 2004). Free trade and its virtues are a mantra of contemporary economics, and a fixed point of policy for the WTO. But there are many economists who disagree, and there are many ideas for alternative ways of organising world trade and increasing…