Archive - 2005

The final formula for reducing industrial tariffs in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations must bring down high bound tariffs to existing applied rates

Pakistan Proposal for a Market Access Formula for Non-Agricultural Products presented at the mini-Ministerial in Dalian, China12-14 July 2005.

The Bush administration remains committed to the stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas but the issue of U.S. farm subsidies and support policies should be dealt with at the World Trade Organization.

The United States and the Philippines last week concluded meetings under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, during which they discussed the full range of bilateral issues and coordinated on the World Trade Organization Doha Development Agenda negotiations

Incoming World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy is preparing to go 'full steam ahead' into an intensive negotiating phase of the Doha Development Agenda by directing the chairs of the agriculture and industrial market access negotiations commence text-based negotiations without delay

The WTO General Council meeting ended on 29 July without any of the anticipated results of additional agreements (or 'first approximations') on key aspects of the Doha work programme

The World Trade Organization rejected European Union plans to triple its banana import tariff

At the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) on 28 July, severaldeveloping countries expressed many concerns about the state and substance of the WTO negotiations, as well as the process which theyfound to be not transparent or participatory.(M.Khor)

Something that's been kept quiet is how Congress will decide by Sept.16 to cut $3 billion in Agriculture Department programs during the next five years including $173 million in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

The Trade Negotiations Committee heard assessments from members on 28 July 2005on the state of play in the negotiations, with many members expressing disappointment that there had not been as much progress as scheduled, and urging that negotiating momentum pick up from September, after the summer break.