Archive - 2005 - Article

The European Commission's DG Trade has finally replied to questions raised by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) about the privileged access and influence of industry lobby groups like the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the European Services Forum (ESF).

The WTO General Council started its meeting today in an atmosphere of anti-climax as well as general gloom that its long-touted objective of coming up with 'first approximations' of modalities on key issues to give a boost to the preparations for the Hongkong Ministerial in December would not be fulfilled.

the chair of the agriculture negotiationsreported that there had been negotiations among a small group of countries in thepast week.

There has been no progress in the agriculture talks over the past days, but it is not a crisis

It dealt with eight regular items today, including TRIPS andhealth, special and dfiierential treatment, small economies,implementation issues, budget committee.

On the eve of the WTO General Council meeting (which starts on 27 July), there does not appear to be any last minute breakthroughs on the main issues of agriculture or non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

Bilateral and plurilateral meetings on fisheries and antidumping (AD) dominated the work of the 11-15 July session of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Negotiating Group on Rules

Negotiations on agriculture in the World Trade Organisation have been taking place in a small group involving 14 WTO member countries (known as the extended FIPs, five interested parties)

The chairman of the Doha round's services negotiating group this week told the Trade Negotiations Committee that offers now on the table provide few if any new commercial opportunities to services companies.

The final working week of July, starting 25 July, will see a spurt of activity at the World Trade Organisation as members try to reach as much agreement as possible on a number of issues.