Archive - 2005

The European Union stood firm Dec. 16 in resisting demands from key trading partners for an agreement at the World Trade Organization's Hong Kong ministerial conference on an end date for the elimination of export subsidies

At the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong for the sixth Ministerial conference, unless developing countries against pressures -- from the WTO leaders, the US-EC-Japan and their transnational corporate lobbies -- they may be setting themselves up for another highly imbalanced outcome and a more oppressive multilateral trading system.

Dramatic rich country promises to help poor countries expand exports could fail without a change in how billions of dollars in aid are managed, Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said on Wednesday.

The U.S. and EU are attempting to put a 'development spin' at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial in announcing a 'development package' comprising of aid for trade, non-binding duty free market access for Least Developing Countries and a few other items.

Trade ministers from nearly 150 countries will try to break a deadlock in troubled global talks on Thursday, amid U.S. and European sniping over farm subsidies, food aid and measures to help the world's poorest.

No progress seems to have been made in negotiations on market access issues of agriculture, NAMA and services after two days of the Ministerial

With representatives from every continent, the campaign

European NGOs have sharply criticized the EU development package today at the WTO Ministerial Conference in HongKong.

Trade ministers struggled to make progress toward a new pact to boost global commerce and faced an immediate challenge from African cotton farmers demanding a deal to cut subsidies.

Developing nations went on the offensive on Thursday as trade talks limped into their third day, with Washington and Tokyo under pressure to accept a duty-free, quota-free exports deal for the world's poorest countries.