Trade Negotiations Insights

Volume 10 • Number 9 December 2011

  • Last issue of TNI: ICTSD introduces BRIDGES Africa, and ECDPM presents GREAT insights
    Dear TNI / Eclairage reader, After ten successful years, we have decided to stop producing Trade Negotiations Insights and Eclairage at the end of this year. This is the final issue.  We thank you for your interest in our coverage of (nearly!) everything related to trade and sustainable development, and hope that TNI / Eclairage were…
  • Editorial
    Rashid Kaukab opens this month’s TNI on a somewhat positive note. A week away from the WTO ministerial, he reminds us that the Doha round and the WTO are two seperate things. The lessons and achievements of the Doha round, regardless of its success or failure, can be used to strengthen the Multilateral Trading System.…
  • News and Publications
    The World Bank published “Unfinished Business ?, The WTO’s Doha Agenda” The World Bank, in association with the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London, published in November a book in which the conclusions differ from the strained and frustrating 10-year-long Doha Round negotiations. Will Martin and Aaditya Mattoo, editors of the volume, insist on the…
  • To have or not to have a round: WTO at crossroads
    The ten year long saga of the WTO Doha Round continues.  While some claim that the Round is practically dead and hence should be buried to avoid putrification of the corpse [1], others remain optimistic.  There is also a growing view that continued viewing of the WTO through the prism of a stalled Doha Round…
  • Can Kenya become a global exporter of business services?
    Kenya’s potential to export business services is vast. Business services are generally provided on a private sector basis and require a high level of skills that are usually certified. Business services include accounting, architectural, engineering, legal services, business process outsourcing (BPO), information communication technology (ICT), information communication technology enabled services…
  • PACER Plus progress and promise: Regional integration challenges and opportunities in the Pacific
    The Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs) are engaged in two major trade negotiations with developed countries - the EPA negotiations with the EU and the more recently commenced PACER Plus negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. [1] The negotiations were linked from the beginning. When the FICs sought to negotiate a regional trade agreement among themselves, in…
  • Establishment of standards for international agricultural trade: Promoting Africa’s participation
    The rapid reduction in tariffs experienced in the last half decade is increasingly being replaced by the use of non-tariff measures by most developed countries; ostensibly to protect consumers and producers from imported animal and plant products and materials that may be contaminated. Thus, non-tariff barriers such as Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures are critical…
  • Fostering industrial development in Africa in the new global environment: Key policy recommendations
    In a special issue of its Economic Development in Africa Report this year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) collaborated with the United Nations Industrial Organization (UNIDO) to delineate strategies and policy options for Africa to foster its industrial development in the new global environment. The report advocates for African countries to…
  • Agriculture liberalisation and economic integration in Africa
    Africa needs to accelerate regional economic integration to avoid the risks of agricultural (including food) ‘trade diversion’ and to reap the benefits of full or reciprocal liberalisation under multilateral and preferential trade agreements.  Although these agreements may improve market access and consumer welfare in least developed countries in Africa, they may also weaken these countries’…
  • WTO Roundup
    G-20 calls for new, “credible” approaches on Doha Leaders from the Group of 20 major economies met in Cannes, France, on 3-4 November and reaffirmed their commitment to resolving the impasse in the WTO’s Doha negotiations. They have instructed their trade ministers to redouble one’s efforts by pursuing “fresh, credible” approaches in order to overcome current…
  • EPA Update
    Exchanges on EPAs during the 22nd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly MEPs and MP from ACP States met from 21-23 November in Togo, Lomé during the 22nd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. [1] EPAs were mentioned during the JPA. Before sitting in session with EU Parliamentarians, the ACP Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in plenary,…
  • ACP-EU Events
    December 9                 EU - CARIFORUM Special Committee on Customs Cooperation and Trade Facilitation, Santo Domingo 10              Forum Island Country Trade Ministers meeting, Brussels, Belgium 12              ACP-EU EPA Joint Ministerial Trade Committee meeting, Brussels, Belgium 12-15              EAC - EU Senior and technical level…
  • WTO Events
    1 - 2     General Council 9           Working Party on the accession of Azerbaijan 15 - 17 EIGHTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 19          Dispute Settlement Body…
  • Resources
    EU Proposal to End Preferences of 18 African and Pacific States: An Assessment, Lorand Bartels and Paul Goodison, Commonwealth Secretariat Trade Hot Topics Issue #91, November 2011, www.thecommonwealth.org Why Trade Facilitation is Important for Africa, Barbara Rippel, World Bank Africa Trade Policy Note No: 27, November 2011, www.worldbank.org Fact sheet on the interim Economic Partnership AgreementsSADC…