Archive - Article

Developing countries risk losing their present flexibility to decide on the standards for granting patents if developed countries' proposals for a new WIPO treaty on patents are adopted.

A link to a report issued by the Chair of the NAMA negotiations on his recent consultations.

After the Hong Kong ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last December, not much progress seems to have been made in key areas of the ongoing negotiations. The recent meeting of the G-6 countries, including India, was not very productive.

Activists over the weekend launched a campaign against a planned bilateral free trade deal with the US, saying it could undermine job and food security and the nation's economy.

A link to the least developed country (LDC) Group submission on food aid. Please note in particular the reference to the possibility for monetisation 'under exceptional circumstances, to fund activities that are directly related to the delivery of the food aid to, or facilitating procurement of agriculture inputs, where necessary by the final recipients.'

Links to the NAMA 11 Statement on ensuring a fair, balanced and development friendly outcome on NAMA and a paper by Argentina on how to implement paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration which aims to achieve a balanced outcome between agriculture and NAMA market access.

WTO farm talks, a central part of global free trade negotiations, have made some progress ahead of an April deadline but a breakthrough will come only when key political issues are resolved, officials said on Friday.

Two links to articles on the reform and future of the EU's CAP. The first is a Memorandum on the Implementation and Future of the Reformed CAP. The second is an analysis by Jacques Berthelot on the Memorandum. Please note in particular the section at the end on the question of the future of the CAP.

A group of developing countries, known as the NAMA-11, sharply criticised on Monday 20 March the demands of the developed countries for drastic reductions of their industrial tariffs by developing countries, and said the demands 'threaten to create an anti-development outcome' in the Doha talks.

As fundamental differences continue to stall progress in the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Round of trade talks, a senior official from the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said March 20 that India would rather see the talks fail than accept an agreement that went against its interests.