Archive

February 14th, 2007

Transparency and inclusiveness needed in resumed Doha talks, stresses South

13 February, 2007
Developing countries welcomed, at a WTO General Council meeting on 7 February the full resumption of multilateral negotiations on the Doha Work Programme and stressed on a multilateral process that fully observed the principles of transparency and inclusiveness in achieving an outcome.

Southern Africa: Balance between free market and state-run food security needed

13 February, 2007
Southern African countries have shown willingness to experiment with liberalising the agriculture sector, but food security experts feel that some form of government intervention is still required to prevent hunger in the region.

Malaysia’s Muhamad Noor to chair WTO General Council

13 February, 2007
Developing countries Wednesday welcomed the 'full resumption of multilateral negotiations' in Geneva on the Doha work programme and development agenda, and made clear that 'any outcome must be the product of a multilateral process that is inclusive and transparent.'

February 12th

Need to reduce agri support for WTO talks to go forward

11 February, 2007
The prospects of forward movement in WTO talks seems bleak if developed countries do not give a clear commitment to drastically reduce their support to the farm sector.

February 9th

Green Box removal may reduce US, EU exports by 40-50% (2nd of 3 articles on the Green Box)

8 February, 2007
Green Box agricultural subsidies have boosted the agricultural exports and output of many developed countries (especially the United States and European Union states).

UNCTAD paper reveals distortions of Green Box subsidies (Article 1 of 3 articles)

8 February, 2007
The current efforts towards a breakthrough in the stalled Doha negotiations at the World Trade Organisation have focused firstly on getting the United States to make a new offer to put a maximum limit on its total 'trade-distorting' domestic support (TDS) in agriculture that is more acceptable than its previously announced offer.

Need to change the WTO rules on Green Box subsidies (3rd of 3 articles on Green Box)

8 February, 2007
New disciplines are urgently needed to restrict the developed countries' wrong use of Green Box subsidies that are presently permitted under WTO rules, otherwise these subsidies will continue to distort agricultural production and trade, at the expense of developing countries.

February 8th

Assessing Doha - Progress, Differences

7 February, 2007
Sitting together in a newly constituted General Council, World Trade Organization members yesterday vowed to conclude the Doha trade negotiations - but continued to differ on how to do so.

Farmers’ Group Hit DA, DAR, DENR For Onerous RP-China Deals

7 February, 2007
The Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS), a network of farmer organizations and peasant support NGOs and individuals which campaigns

February 7th

Protest at US embassy as Malaysia-US FTA talks proceed

6 February, 2007
As Malaysia and the US engaged in another round of bilateral talks to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA), a group of citizens staged a peaceful protest outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur.