This report identifies options that negotiators and policy-makers could pursue in order to reach a permanent solution at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the problems some developing countries say
Geneva: The European Union (EU) said on Monday that it would slash farm tariffs by 60% as part of a new global trade pact, a deeper cut than it has ever offered. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the offer was meant to kick-start a week of crunch global commerce talks on a new global commerce pact.
Backed by over 100 developing countries, India, Brazil and South Africa will take on the rich nations to get a fair trade deal at the WTO meeting of key trade ministers' beginning here on Monday. Against a backdrop of high crude oil prices and global food crisis, the World Trade Organisation has convened a five-day mini Ministerial Meeting with a hope that closing the Doha Round can reinvigorate the world economy which is in the grip of a slowdown.
Bloomberg / Washington July 21, 2008, 0:43 IST The decision is the first time China has lost a case since it joined the global trade body in 2001. China violates global trade rules by requiring automakers operating there to buy most components from local suppliers or face higher tariffs, the World Trade Organization ruled. The decision, issued today in Geneva on a complaint brought by the European Union, US and Canada, is the first time China has lost a case since it joined the global trade body in 2001.
D Ravi Kanth / Geneva July 21, 2008, 0:24 IST Amid uncertainty over the mini-ministerial meeting starting today, the two powerful trade chiefs of the United States and the European Union sought India's assistance to break the deadlock over sectoral tariff elimination and the anti-concentration provision in return for supporting New Delhi's demand on enhanced flexibilities for special products and special safeguard mechanism, Business Standard was told.
WHY are member states of the WTO still negotiating the Doha Round, particularly in agriculture despite being aware that the current US administration does not have the authority or the power to ratify the promises it makes in the any issues, especially non-agricultural market access (Nama) and agriculture? As the US civil society Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (PCGTW) writes: "The political and legal reality is that the US will only be in a position to engage honestly in Doha Round talks after the new president arrives.'
Amiti Sen GENEVA A DAY before the crucial mini-ministerial meet of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the stage seems to be set for a battle between the developed and developing countries. While developed countries, including the US and the EU, are trying to push developing countries to minimise the number of products they would shield from tariff cuts (an allowance given to developing countries under the special & differential treatment clause), the poorer countries are bent on ensuring that they get more out of the round than their rich counterparts.
When global trade talks ran into the night in Geneva in the summer of 2006, so many negotiators crammed into one room that they had to choose between sweltering with the windows closed or opening them and fending off swarms of insects. Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization, has the task of managing the complex negotiations. For ministers preparing for new negotiations starting Monday, the good news is that their meeting room will be air-conditioned. The bad news is that it may be even more crowded
D Ravi Kanth / Geneva July 19, 2008, 0:59 IST In rather blunt and uncompromising terms, India has made it known to key industrialised countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that New Delhi must secure enhanced flexibilities to address the special products and special safeguard mechanism and commensurate responses to its offers in Doha services negotiations in order to accept an agreement on the modalities in Doha Development Agenda agriculture and market-opening for industrial goods.
Yoginder K. AlaghPosted How India's participation at WTO and G8 is hampered by lack of vision
AS THE WTO mini-ministerial approaches, the news upsetting many developing countries is that the chairperson of the services negotiations, ambassador Fernando de Mateo of Mexico, has issued a report in the form of a draft services text, on July 17. Apparently, delegations were not informed nor were all members consulted, and some even accuse the Chair of lack of transparency.
