International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz has not addressed the main concerns surrounding the US-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), claimed a regional grouping of fishermen and farmers today.
IN A move analysts say could help restart stalled world trade negotiations, Canada has taken the US to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over trade-distorting maize subsidies.
'Content' and 'substance' - not artificial deadlines - will set the stage for a breakthrough in the precarious Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said here on Friday after a face-to-face meeting with World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy.
The World Bank has come under a torrent of criticism from the G-33 group, comprising India and 45 other developing countries, for its paper, which called for raising agricultural prices substantially through special products (SPs)
The G-33 group of 46 developing countries had sent a detailed critique on the initial draft paper authored by Maros Ivanic and Will Martin for the World Bank, pointing out that the paper was fundamentally flawed in its assumptions and methodology, ignored the reality of the prevailing agrarian structures in most developing countries and misinterpreted the proposed operation and impact of Special Products (SPs).
The push for tariff reduction worldwide along with the pressure to eliminate production subsidies, which has been largely commanded by the World Trade Organization (WTO), has brought serious repercussions to the dominantly agrarian Asian economies.
