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Market Access Discussed During Second 'Agriculture Week'
Members are meeting from 19-23 April for a second ‘agriculture week’ seeking to rebuild momentum in the agriculture negotiations. In a formal plenary session held on Monday, 19 April, New Zealand’s Timothy Groser, who chairs the talks, called on Members to focus on market access — the issue where the widest gaps in positions prevail.…
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Supachai Says Framework For Negotiations Needed By June
The WTO Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) met briefly on 21 April to take stock of negotiations, with only a few Members making interventions. The TNC meeting was the first since the Cancun Ministerial in September 2003, and included statements by the TNC Chair and WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi as well as the Chairs of…
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WTO Environment Committee Considers Environmental Goods
The WTO special (negotiating) session of the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) met on 19 April, and a regular CTE session took place on 20 April. The CTE special session considered an EC submission on the CTE and global governance, and continued discussions on environmental goods. The regular session of the CTE focused on…
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WTO Appellate Body: Differentiation Possible Under Preference Schemes
In a landmark ruling on the EC’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme on 7 April, the WTO Appellate Body pronounced that developed countries are not prohibited by WTO rules from granting different tariffs to products originating in different developing countries under the GSP, provided that such differential treatment meets certain conditions under the so-called…
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TRIPS Council Scrutinises GI Negotiating Mandate
The Council for Trade-related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) met on 7 April for its first special (negotiating) session since the Cancun Ministerial Conference, to continue negotiations on a multilateral register for geographical indications (GI) for wines and spirits. Discussions focused on the key outstanding issues in the negotiating mandate provided in the TRIPs…
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Caribbean Acp Countries Launch Negotiations With EU
On 16 April, Ministers from 15 Caribbean countries in the Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States joined their EU counterparts in Jamaica to launch the EU-CARIFORUM (Caribbean Forum of ACP States) ‘Economic Partnership Agreement’ (or EPA) negotiations. The First Joint EPA Ministerial Negotiating Meeting, which followed the launch, aimed at agreeing on a…
- In Brief
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NGOS Characterise Epas As New Barriers To Eradicating Poverty
SMALL ISLAND VULNERABILITIES CONSIDERED IN LEAD-UP TO SUMMIT The UN Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD) from 14-16 April to consider the challenges facing Small Islands States (SIDS) in preparation for a summit in to be held in Mauritius in August this year. The Mauritius summit will review the performance of a ten-year programme to enhance…
- 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. ICTSD 22 April, New York, US: ENSURING ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION - THE TRADE DIMENSION. This ICTSD-IUCN (World Conservation Union) side event to the twelfth…
- Resources
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Resources
DUMPING ON THE WORLD. (Oxfam Briefing Paper, March 2004). According to this new report, EU taxpayers are giving 819 million euros in subsidies each year to six European sugar processing companies to dump around five million tons of sugar annually on world markets. Although Least Developed Countries are allowed limited access to the EU market…