Archive - 2006

The June 7 proposal by the African Group (an alliance of 41 African countries) to the WTO on managing trade in agricultural commodities is a refreshing way forward for addressing poverty and improving living standards in rural areas in the context of the Doha Agenda.

On June 7, 2006, against the backdrop of the nation's capitol, prominent Korean leaders representing farmers, trade unions, and peasants addressed a packed balcony of press and congressional staffers, voicing their opposition to the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

With just a few days to go before the draft NAMA modalities are scheduled to be produced by the Chair of the NAMA negotiations, the NAMA-11 group of developing countries on Thursday 15 June presented a comprehensive set of proposals at a NAMA meeting to ensure that their concerns are taken into account.

President George W. Bush said on Thursday that the Doha round of world trade talks had reached 'a critical moment' and that he would press for further progress when he meets European Union leaders in Austria next week.

Several developing countries have responded with anger and even outrage to the latest proposal in the WTO's non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations by a group of developed countries that there be a difference of only five points in the two coefficients for developed and developing countries in the 'Swiss formula' for cutting tariffs.

An informal open-ended agriculture meeting at the WTO Thursday 1 June discussed the Chair's latest reference papers on Blue Box and Green Box subsidies where members appeared to show some flexibility on the technical details but failed to converge on the major points, according to trade officials.

An informal consultation held on 6 June at the WTO on the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ended with positions among members remaining unchanged on the issue of disclosure of the source of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.

WTO members held a first discussion on Monday (12 June) on a paper suggesting modalities on agriculture market access issues that was issued by the chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand.

As Malaysia and the United States began their first round of talks on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA), they were confronted by a group of Malaysian protesters concerned that the agreement will cause the country more harm than good.

Bilateral free trade agreements are seen by the agricultural biotechnology industry as an important conduit for spreading genetically modified organisms (GMOs) around the world.