Archive - Jun 2006 - Article

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.

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).

There has been no progress made in the negotiations this week on non-agriculture market access (NAMA) in the WTO on the so-called 'exception' issues, according to Ambassador Don Stephenson of Canada, Chair of the NAMA Negotiating Group.

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.'

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

Developing countries led by India and Brazil are set on a collision course with Washington by stepping up their campaign in the World Trade Organisation to oblige patent applicants to disclose the origin of inventions using biological resources or traditional knowledge.

A senior U.S. trade official said June 6 that the administration has come under 'some pressure' from the U.S. agriculture community to consider scaling back its domestic support proposal in the World Trade Organization negotiations in response to the European Union's failure to offer greater access to the European market.

Link to a new proposal by the African Group for modalities on agricultural commodities.

A number of recent studies have predicted losses for Africa from the Doha trade round, in the industrial sector, but also in agriculture. This is contrary to the conventional view that many African policy makers have.

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).