Archive - Oct 2005

The European Union on Friday 28 October afternoon presented a new proposal on agriculture which also contains its demands on other areas, especially services and non agricultural market access.

Korean movements have designated 13th to 19th November to be a week of action against APEC, with a people

Fourteen developing countries have issued a joint paper during the services negotiations at the WTO objecting to having any reference to 'targets' as an negotiating approach in the services text of the Ministerial Declaration for the forthcoming WTO conference in Hong Kong.

Saudi Arabia was given a green light on Friday to join the World Trade Organization, in time to participate in December's crucial ministerial summit in Hong Kong

The latest maneuvers in the WTO vis a vis the GATS to torpedo its more development friendly elements is extremely worrying. This is an article on how this has been orchestrated, the opposition from developing countries, and the implications of the draft Ministerial text (26 October) for developing countries which the Chair has released.

A ranking US trade officials reassured US senators that nothing will move ahead in the ongoing Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations until the European Union presents an acceptable offer on agricultural market access

President Jacques Chirac of France broke with the rest of the Union and said he was prepared to block world trade talks. Chirac's intervention came as the European Commission was due Friday to make a new offer to break the deadlock on world trade negotiations.

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An impasse became evident on negotiations on the major remaining issue relating to the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health when some key members appeared far apart on a solution, and disagreed even on how the process of consultations is going on, during a meeting of the TRIPS Council on 25 October.

The European Union's offer today to cut its farm tariffs by as much as 60 percent falls short of expectations because the proposal allows exemptions that would block key exports, U.S. officials and industry groups said.