WTO Mini-Ministerial: The Day After
Trade ministers at the WTO on 30 July started to pick up the pieces the day after a high-profile summit collapsed without an agreement on world trade.
WTO Members expressed a desire not to abandon the Doha Round negotiations, nor to lose the progress they had made towards an agreement on cutting tariffs and farm subsidies [...]
WTO Mini-Ministerial Ends in Collapse
Governments’ latest attempt to salvage a deal in the Doha Round of trade talks broke down on Tuesday, as ministers acknowledged that they were unable to reach a compromise after nine days of a high-level summit at the WTO. The multilateral negotiations now face an even more uncertain future, despite considerable headway towards an accord.
Officials [...]
G-7 Talks on Special Safeguard Mechanism Inconclusive as Blame Game Heats Up
Meeting for the eighth straight day, trade ministers at the WTO agreed Monday night to keep discussing thorny issues that continue to block potential agreements on liberalising trade in agricultural and industrial goods.
“The situation is very tense,” the WTO’s chief spokesman, Keith Rockwell, said while trade ministers from the ‘G-7′ group of leading trade powers [...]
WTO Members Move Forward on Bananas, Tropical Products, but Major Differences Loom.
From bananas and cotton to trade preference erosion and liberalisation for tropical products, officials at the WTO on 27 July addressed a range of issues in the Doha Round talks that will need to be resolved alongside higher-profile differences on tariff and subsidy cuts if governments are to strike framework deals on agricultural and manufacturing [...]
Members Give Mixed Reactions to Lamy Compromise, Take “A Good Step Forward” On Services
WTO Members on 26 July gave mixed reactions to a package of compromise parameters for tariff and subsidy cuts tabled by Director-General Pascal Lamy the day before. Most agreed that it could serve as a starting point for discussions aimed at framework Doha Round agreements on agricultural and manufacturing trade, though there were some sharp [...]