Archive - Jun 2006

Links to three new submission in relation to agriculture market access.

A long-standing fight by several developing countries to amend the WTO's TRIPS Agreement to oblige members to get patent applicants to disclose the source of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge took a step forward this week when six countries proposed the text of new provisions to be added to the TRIPS Agreement.

It's the 'Come to Jesus' moment for the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations. 'We are now in the red zone,' World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said recently. 'And we are not far from the red part of this red zone. The timetable is a number of days, not weeks.'

The WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access for Non-Agricultural Products (NAMA), at an informal consultation Wednesday (31 May), discussed proposals dealing with non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

WTO members have clashed (mainly along the lines of developed and developing countries) over the interpretation of a paper by the WTO Secretariat providing data on the effects of applying different coefficients and two types of flexibilities in formulae for reducing tariffs in non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

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).

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).

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).

Links to a new set of agriculture simulations on domestic support (AMS and overall support) and on tariffs.

India has warned that it may withdraw some of its services offers if developed countries do not respond to its requests in the area of off-shore services (mode 1) and movement of workers and professionals (mode 4).