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The Doha Round was launched on false pretences, including calling it a development round, and the ability of developed countries to make it a development round is “absent”, according to former United States Trade Representative, Charlene Barshefsky.

How far the developing countries will be able to carry on with the least developed ones, by giving them more concessions will determine which way South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) goes.

Worries about the dark side of free trade are surfacing in the United States in ways that could affect the course of globalization worldwide.

The success of the Doha Development Agenda services negotiations will result from the number and quality of 'revised offers' which eventually come forward, said services negotiations chair Fernando De Mateo...

The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Margaret Chan, has sent a letter to Thailand's Health Minister expressing regret for the embarrassment caused to his government by remarks she was reported to have made in Bangkok that were critical of the compulsory licenses granted by the government for three medicines.

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 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.

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.'

At a meeting of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services at the WTO on Friday 2 February, WTO members reiterated that services is central to the 'triangle' of issues on market access in agriculture and NAMA negotiations.

This publication is an initial report on the spread of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) throughout the Asia-Pacific and their impacts on agriculture and food sovereignty, in the context of the current state of play of the WTO, and the devastating legacy of agricultural liberalisation through World Bank/International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programmes.