Archive - Abr 2006

India is deliberately weakening its bargaining position in WTO by unnecessarily resorting to wheat imports against zero duty and relaxed quarantine norms when the granary is full.

Negotiators from leading trading nations and blocs are beginning a series of meetings this week in a bid to put the Doha round of world trade talks back on track after they admitted on Friday that a key April 30 deadline would be missed.

The World Trade Organisation's April 30 deadline for attaining 'modalities' in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) will be missed, it became clear Friday as delegations wound up a week of negotiations on the two subjects.

As WTO negotiators miss yet another deadline for concluding world trade talks, developing country negotiators are no doubt asking themselves if they might be better off with no deal at all. According to a new policy report by Tufts University researchers, they have good reason to question the agreement, as hidden costs may well outstrip the limited gains predicted for most countries.

A group of 125 civil society organizations, in a letter sent Tuesday to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, has called for the cancellation of a mini-Ministerial reportedly involving only about 30 WTO Members which Lamy had planned for end April and early May in Geneva.

The mood at the World Trade Organisation headquarters turned even more sombre Wednesday 19 April as many delegates have become convinced that it would be impossible to agree to modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access by the 30 April deadline set by the Hong Kong Ministerial.

In this final week of negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) before the end-April deadline for modalities, WTO members remain polarized over the key issues of the formula for making tariff cuts and flexibilities from the formula for developing country members.

Links to excerpts from Martin Khor's news article on this development which provides some background and context to the G33 letter. And the G33 letter to Lamy for your information and action.

The European Union and the United States blamed each other on Friday for a stalemate in global trade talks which put beyond reach an end of April deadline for a key deal on farm and industrial goods.

The publication of a compilation of references to trade and trade-related issues by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.