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WOW - when's the last time 106 congressional Representatives - 9 full committee chairs and 40 subcommittee chairs included - were original cosponsors of any legislation, much less agreed on a new way forward on the contentious issue of trade?

Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Edward Luce in Washington

China and the US failed to achieve a breakthrough at their latest round of
climate talks on Wednesday, raising the stakes in the global effort to fight
global climate change.

The two countries responsible for almost half of the world¹s greenhouse gas
emissions ended three days of negotiations in Beijing.

While there are still months to go until the December meeting in Copenhagen,
where 181 countries, led by the United Nations, plan to work out a new

Date: 18 June, 2009 Dear Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh, As the newly formed UPA coalition government is just settling in to govern for the next five years, there is news that Commerce Minister Anand Sharma is already on his way to the United States (US) to bilaterally iron out differences to seal the trade deal that was launched during the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) 4th Ministerial Meeting in Doha. At stake in these trade negotiations are hundreds of millions of livelihoods in the farming and non-agriculture sectors that India has fought hard to preserve over the past eight years since the launch of the Doha Development Round.

There is a rather odd interview Anand Sharma has given to Reuters. He is off to Washington and the interview comes just before the visit. Part of the interview is about India being keen to break the deadlock in WTO negotiations.

TRIPS and FTAs have adverse impact on access to drugs

Geneva, 3 Jun (Kanaga Raja) -- The WTO TRIPS Agreement and the TRIPS-plus
provisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have had an adverse impact on
prices and availability of medicines, making it difficult for countries to
comply with their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to
health, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Mr Anand Grover,
said on Tuesday.

Non-governmental organizations are urgently asking Canadians to write to senators, MPs and the Prime Minister to express their outrage at the police massacre of peaceful Indigenous protesters in Peru, and to demand that the Canadian government halt its implementation of the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that is now before the Senate as Bill C-24.

Eight torturous years of talks over a new global trade pact should reach a conclusion next year after changes in the US and Indian governments, WTO chief Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday.

New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended a blanket ban on foreign investment in retail and has opposed even big domestic corporate entering the sector saying that it will lead to unemployment.

The following represents four key goals that our organizations agree should guide US trade policy and practice with regard to intellectual property (IP) and health matters.

The International Labour Organization's ninety-eighth tripartite conference gets under way from 3-19 June amidst the latest ILO labour market projections showing a further increase in the number of unemployed, working poor and those in vulnerable employment