Archive - Jun 2006

Press statement: Farmer leaders representing the international peasant movement La Via Campesina are in Geneva to express their rejection of the WTO Doha Round. The agreement currently negotiated in

A group of over 100 civil society organizations has denounced the mini-Ministerial meeting to be held in Geneva in the next days as not legitimate as it does not allow for the effective participation of all Ministers.

As many Ministers and senior officials arrived today in Geneva for several days of WTO meetings, speculation was still rife on how the 'Ministerial Green Room' would be run, what issues would the Director General Pascal Lamy really want to focus on (and what issues may thus be left out), and what the Ministers and officials who are not invited to the Green Room would be doing.

The Chair of the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Pascal Lamy, at an informal Heads of Delegation meeting Wednesday, outlined to WTO members the process, and substantive issues that are to be tackled at a 'mini-Ministerial' that begins on Friday (30 June).

A document listing issues to be tackled at the WTO 'Mini-Ministerial' starting on 30 June, and the sequence in which the discussion will take place, was discussed in a Green Room meeting of about 30 Ambassadors with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on Tuesday 27 June morning.

World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy yesterday circulated a revised list of issues designed for discussion by the 30-plus trade ministers that arrive here this week in an attempt to conclude negotiating modalities for the Doha Development Agenda trade in agriculture and nonagricultural market access.

Affiliates of the International Metalworkers' Federation in Africa have just released a statement on the current proposals of the WTO arguing that they will have a negative impact on developing countries and undermine development, in particular in Africa and, in turn, will increase the pressure on workers in the more industrialised nations.

Over 70 European Civil Society Organisations from 21 countries [1] have today demanded a halt to the Doha round of the WTO talks. Tomorrow, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the European foreign ministers will meet in Geneva for a WTO Mini-Ministerial, which will attempt to strike a last minute deal to rescue the stalled negotiations.

The Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) negotiating committees, NZ Ambassador Crawford Falconer and Canada

This week's ministerial meetings in Geneva aimed at settling on negotiating modalities for agriculture and nonagricultural market access are 'make-or-break' for the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda trade round, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said yesterday