Archive - Article

New Delhi, Jul 20 The fresh WTO proposals for industrial tariffs and agricultural subsidies drew guarded response from India on Friday. While terming the revised blueprints for a final deal

GENEVA, July 18 (Reuters) - Poor-country advocates on Thursday accused global trade talk mediators of treating Europe and the United States with kid gloves in proposals meant to broker consensus toward a new World Trade Organisation pact.

UNCTAD has added a new dimension for disciplining multilateral trade by a new code of conduct to prevent manipulation of exchange rate, wage rate, taxes or subsidies.

The agriculture meeting this Wednesday at the WTO is expected by many diplomats to be eventful as it will be on the eve of the issuing of a 'provocative' paper by the Chair of the agriculture negotiations.

Differences emerged between developing countries on Wednesday over a key issue in World Trade Organisation (WTO) farm talks, a crucial part of struggling global free trade negotiations.

More than 240 national and international groups representing religious, civil rights, environmental, farm, health, development and labour interests have come out in opposition to the grant of any new Fast Track trade authority for the WTO negotiations by the US Congress, and urged Congress to resist pressure by US corporate giants and other WTO proponents to renew this authority.

WTO members agreed on Friday 20 April to turn to multilateral negotiations at the WTO itself in Geneva as the central method to try and achieve a breakthrough in the organisation's troubled Doha talks.

The chair of the WTO’s Doha agriculture negotiations, Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand, said Friday that he would be preparing a provocative "challenge" paper at the end of next week that would be a precursor to a revised draft of an agriculture text.

The European Union informed the World Trade Organization on Tuesday that it will raise retaliatory sanctions against U.S. products because Washington continues to distribute anti-dumping funds to its companies in violation of international commerce rules.

Over 100 farmers and civil society organisations on Wednesday signed a memorandum rejecting the potential agreement by the Cairns Group and termed it anti-farmer and anti-Pakistan.