Archive

April 24th, 2006

Delegates meet to push Doha round

23 April, 2006
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.

WTO members resigned to missed deadlines as week of talks ends

23 April, 2006
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.

Latin American Trade Unions adopt common roadmap on Labour and Environment

23 April, 2006
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).

April 22nd

Doha Round and Developing Countries: Will the Doha deal do more harm than good?

21 April, 2006
As WTO negotiators miss yet another deadline for concluding world trade talks, developing country negotiators are no doubt asking themselves if they might be better off with no deal at all. According to a new policy report by Tufts University researchers, they have good reason to question the agreement, as hidden costs may well outstrip the limited gains predicted for most countries.

April 21st

NGOs urge Lamy to cancel end-April WTO mini-Ministerial

20 April, 2006
A group of 125 civil society organizations, in a letter sent Tuesday to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, has called for the cancellation of a mini-Ministerial reportedly involving only about 30 WTO Members which Lamy had planned for end April and early May in Geneva.

Sombre mood at WTO as April deadline looks more unattainable

20 April, 2006
The mood at the World Trade Organisation headquarters turned even more sombre Wednesday 19 April as many delegates have become convinced that it would be impossible to agree to modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access by the 30 April deadline set by the Hong Kong Ministerial.

Key differences re-surface in NAMA report and meeting

20 April, 2006
In this final week of negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) before the end-April deadline for modalities, WTO members remain polarized over the key issues of the formula for making tariff cuts and flexibilities from the formula for developing country members.

G33's Letter to Lamy on SP and SSM

20 April, 2006
Links to excerpts from Martin Khor's news article on this development which provides some background and context to the G33 letter. And the G33 letter to Lamy for your information and action.

EU and U.S. trade blame - WTO deadline beyond reach

20 April, 2006
The European Union and the United States blamed each other on Friday for a stalemate in global trade talks which put beyond reach an end of April deadline for a key deal on farm and industrial goods.

April 20th

AU Conference calls for transparent WTO process

19 April, 2006
The African Union Trade Ministers' Conference, held in Nairobi on 12-14 April, adopted a Nairobi Ministerial Declaration on the Doha Work Programme, detailing Africa's position on the current WTO negotiations.