Archive - jun 2006

A senior US agricultural trade negotiator in the Doha Development Agenda commented yesterday that he has not seen so much 'negotiating enthusiasm' in Geneva for months - but not enough to create a 'level of ambition' that would lead the way to an eventual conclusion (WTD, 6/6/06).

Link to a new proposal by the African Group for modalities on agricultural commodities.

The World Trade Organization Doha Round will not succeed without an 'ambitious' aid-for-trade package, WTO Deputy Director General Valentine Sendanyoye-Rugwabiza said yesterday (WTD, 6/6/06).

A senior U.S. trade official said June 6 that the administration has come under 'some pressure' from the U.S. agriculture community to consider scaling back its domestic support proposal in the World Trade Organization negotiations in response to the European Union's failure to offer greater access to the European market.

The United States yesterday sharply opposed the idea of commencing text-based negotiations on disclosing the origin of biological resources and 'traditional knowledge' in patent applications (WTD, 5/26/06).

This pamphlet

In an attempt to break the deadlock in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations on reaching full modalities by the end of June, Malaysian trade minister Rafidah Aziz yesterday offered a 'blueprint' that calls for accepting the Group-of-20 proposal as a 'basis to move negotiations forward' on the thresholds and cuts for tariff reduction, tariff reduction numbers and spending caps in the farm market access pillar (see related report this issue).

The European Union plans to convene a stocktaking meeting of select trade ministers on the Doha Development Agenda services negotiations in an effort to better link the outcomes of the modalities negotiations in agriculture and nonagricultural market access with the important services sector, WTD has learned (WTD, 5/30/06).

The Ministers of Health of ten South American countries have issued ajoint declaration on intellectual property committing themselves toavoid 'TRIPS plus' provisions in bilateral and regional trade agreements, to facilitate the use of compulsory licensing and parallel importing and to avoid broadening the scope of patentability and the extension of patentable areas.