Archive - 2009 - Article

Next week, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Crean will attend the Pacific Island Forum Trade Ministers Meeting in Apia, Samoa.

The Stop the New Round Coalition (SNR) joins peoples’ organizations and movements across the globe in calling for the rejection of the WTO Doha Round and we demand that the Philippine government turn around and walk away from these unfair and unjust negotiations.

Statement to the COMESA Summit on the ESA-EC Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations

India and the US will hold bilateral talks soon in an attempt to narrow their differences on the ongoing Doha round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The ETF Congress, meeting in Ponta Delgada from 27-29 May 2009

The Chair of the Special Session of the TRIPS Council on Wednesday urged members to move from "understanding" each others' proposals to focussing on "more substantive" discussions in order to take forward the negotiations on a multilateral register for geographical indications (GI) for wines and spirits.

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.