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The World Trade Organisation Monday finally made the conclusion that the deadlines for reaching 'modalities' for agriculture and non-agricultural market access by the end of this month could not be met, and that a planned meeting of some 30 Ministers would be called off.

In a move that has upset many developing countries, the European Union and Japan have recently proposed new treaties in the WTO to prevent or restrict the use by WTO members of export taxes and export restrictions.

The WTO's agriculture negotiations this week have focused so far on issues relating to the export competition pillar, specifically on food aid, state trading enterprises and export credits.

Link for the English translation of the statement circulated in Spanish.

Negotiators from leading trading nations and blocs are beginning a series of meetings this week in a bid to put the Doha round of world trade talks back on track after they admitted on Friday that a key April 30 deadline would be missed.

The World Trade Organisation's April 30 deadline for attaining 'modalities' in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) will be missed, it became clear Friday as delegations wound up a week of negotiations on the two subjects.

The Trade Union Conference on Labour and the Environment for Latin America in Sao Paolo concluded yesterday with a series of undertakings from the Latin American trade union movement. The Conference, organized by ORIT and Sustainlabour brought together 26 national trade union centers, federations (PSI and Rel-UITA) and confederations (ORIT and CLAT).

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has cancelled a 'mini ministerial' meeting which was intended to finalise negotiations in the controversial trade round. The meeting would have excluded most countries from the developing world, and was cancelled following angry protests from developing countries, NGOs and trade unions.

Link to the text of a statement adopted by the metalworkers unions affiliated to the International Metalworkers Federation in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

India is deliberately weakening its bargaining position in WTO by unnecessarily resorting to wheat imports against zero duty and relaxed quarantine norms when the granary is full.