Archive - Mar 2005

The EU will contribute constructively 'to matching an agreement on the AVEs issue by end of April,' said EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.

This three-day informal trade ministerial meeting cross the first hurdle in grappling with the contentious issue of converting special and complex tariffs into ad valorem equivalents.

Allgeier said he believed WTO members were close to a final deal on the methodology. 'There's sort of odds and ends [that need to be resolved], but not the basic substance of it,'

The study underscores the need for an ambitious approach in the NAMA talks, Irace said, and for significant cuts in industrial tariffs by advanced developing countries

EU trade commissioner said in the closed-door session that he does not feel 'apologetic' about raising the differentiation issue at last week's mini-ministerial World Trade Organization meeting.

Senior officials attending a March 2-4 World Trade Organization "mini-ministerial" in Kenya reported progress on resolving their differences.

Emphasized that passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) would have negative effects across the state.

Dennis Olson of the Institute of Agriculture & Trade Policy said free trade agreements such as CAFTA do nothing to address poverty in developing countries - in fact they create it.

Brazil yesterday clashed with the European Union and Switzerland during the informal meeting of trade ministers here over how to speed up work in the Doha Development Agenda services negotiation

The EU, Switzerland, India and the United States made a strong pitch yesterday for stepping up the profile of services negotiations, maintaining that members will have to accelerate work in the coming days.