Archive - Article

A quick critique on recent US proposal on SSM developed by ActionAid in the light of their recent research project on import surges; also attached is US proposal in this regard.

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his introductory statement to the Trade Negotiations Committee on 1 May 2006, said that finding consensus in the negotiations 'remains doable, but only if a sense of urgency-which I feel is not always shared by all-starts appearing in each and every delegation' 'We must now focus our efforts on working intensively, continuously and in an effective manner on a text-based negotiating process, which is solidly anchored in Geneva', he added.

World Trade Organization negotiators are seeking to rescue a global accord by setting a six-week timetable to cut import duties on commodities and industrial goods ranging from corn and computers to cars.

India is unilaterally opening up its doors for imports of wheat at a time when the issues of special products (SPs), special safeguard mechanism (SSM), farm tariffs and bound rates and the role of state trading enterprises are not yet settled in the WTO.

Links to a G-33 Letter to the Chair of the TNC, Pascal Lamy, as well as a Press Statement. Apologies if you have already received this.

The latest is a paper on the special safeguard mechanism, circulated on 26 April.

The United States has submitted its position on a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) in the WTO agriculture negotiations that would provide only a very limited use by developing countries of what they consider to be a crucial mechanism to safeguard against adverse effects of liberalization of their agricultural imports.

Link to a new paper from Jacques Berthelot calculating the extent of EU dumping of meat.

In early April 2006, Ambassador Crawford Falconer, chairperson of the agriculture negotiations, circulated a set of reference papers for the last week of agriculture negotiations before the 30 April deadline for 'modalities'.

Oxfam has abandoned its support for the current talks on a new trade deal, saying Europe and the US have failed to live up to their promises to use trade to cut poverty in the world's poorest countries.