Archive - 2009

The WTO General Council on Thursday afternoon agreed to re-appoint Pascal Lamy as Director-General of the organization for a second term of four years commencing from 1 September 2009.

It is important to protect the significant progress that developing countries have made in recent decades in producing viable exports and in participating in the world economy so that trade can help them recover from the global economic crisis, participants told the Trade and Development Commission of UNCTAD on Monday

The General Exceptions of the EPAs do not preserve the achievements made by African and other developing countries in the WTO on commodities, they contravene the G-77 position, and they serve to undermine the December 2008 modalities. As such, ACP states are advised to demand modification of the EPA General Exceptions in the negotiations towards full EPAs with the European Commission, at the same time as developing countries should bring commodities back to the forefront in the WTO agenda.

Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs today handed down judgment in the Biowatch case. Calling the case “a matter of great interest to the legal profession, the general public, and bodies concerned with public interest litigation”, Justice Sachs set aside the costs order awarded against Biowatch in favour of Monsanto and further awarded legal costs in the High Court hearings in favour of Biowatch and against the state. The bench of eleven judges was unanimous in its decision.

It will send shockwaves through boardrooms if the predictions of the executed campaigner are proved right in a US court

World Trade Organization director-general Pascal Lamy said May 26 that WTO members should consider a two-track approach towards concluding the troubled Doha Round of trade talks, an idea already floated by the United States for breaking the deadlock in the negotiations.

Trade ministers and other leaders will have a number of opportunities in the coming months to negotiate the Doha round on the sidelines of a series of international meetings.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) commends the Department of Trade and Industry for opposing the current Doha texts on agriculture and industrial goods. In a statement released on 22 May 2009, it said that SA would not rush for an imperfect Doha deal.

The WTO Council for Trade in Goods on Tuesday approved a 10-year extension to a WTO waiver allowing developing countries to provide preferential treatment to the products of least developed countries (LDCs) without being required to extend the same tariff treatment to other members.

The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) should reaffirm the need, not only to increase food production, but to re-orient agro-food systems and the regulations that influence them at national and international levels, towards sustainability and the progressive realization of the right to food.