Archive - Apr 2005

A group of non-governmental organizations staged a rally on Monday in front of the ministry of Trade and the State Palace to demand that the government ban the import of staple agricultural products and protect local farmers with subsidies and tariffs.

Governments including Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United States are planning to use new World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations to dismantle a wide range of national laws protecting the environment, social well-being and health, Friends of the Earth International revealed today.

The WIPO meeting on a Development Agenda for WIPO ended on 13 April night with a decision to hold two more meetings in June and July.(M.Khor)

Developing countries elaborate on their WIPO development agenda

Disagreement, mainly on North-South lines, emerged on whether and how to establish a 'Development Agenda' emerged as the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) began an Inter-sessional Intergovernmental meeting (IIM) on 11 April.(M.Khor)

A four-point proposal to establish a

On 20 April at 3:00 pm, the INCD will hold a seminar at WTO headquarters in Geneva to discuss the cultural implications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the potential implications for trade rules of the new UNESCO Convention.

Most industrialised nations resist opening their agricultural markets, seeking to maintain their subsidies for protecting farmers. They spend a combined total of approximately a billion dollars a day on such state supports.

World Trade Organization members are inching closer to a preliminary free trade agreement ahead of the body's December ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.

Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan's trade minister, yesterday pledged to push ahead with informal meetings with other World Trade Organisation members ahead of the next official round of trade talks in December.