Archive - mar 2006

The proposals for cutting tariffs of industrial products in the WTO's negotiations will have significant adverse effects on developing countries' industrialization, according to a paper presented at the Group of 24 Technical Group meeting held in Geneva on 10 March.

The Chair of the Special Session of the WTO Committee on Agriculturetold members at an informal meeting Monday that despite variousconsultations, he has not seen any 'material progress' in the agriculture negotiations since the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December.

The World Trade Organisation's Doha round of trade negotiations is billed as a development round, reflecting the fact that developing countries were reluctant to start another one unless structural imbalances in trade were addressed as a priority.

Link to the collective request on Mode 3.

Developing countries risk losing their present flexibility to decide on the standards for granting patents if developed countries' proposals for a new WIPO treaty on patents are adopted.

After the Hong Kong ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last December, not much progress seems to have been made in key areas of the ongoing negotiations. The recent meeting of the G-6 countries, including India, was not very productive.

A link to a report issued by the Chair of the NAMA negotiations on his recent consultations.

Activists over the weekend launched a campaign against a planned bilateral free trade deal with the US, saying it could undermine job and food security and the nation's economy.

A link to the least developed country (LDC) Group submission on food aid. Please note in particular the reference to the possibility for monetisation 'under exceptional circumstances, to fund activities that are directly related to the delivery of the food aid to, or facilitating procurement of agriculture inputs, where necessary by the final recipients.'

WTO farm talks, a central part of global free trade negotiations, have made some progress ahead of an April deadline but a breakthrough will come only when key political issues are resolved, officials said on Friday.