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 they face when buying food at government-set (or government-administered) prices under their public stockholding programs for food security purposes. The …
Fallout of WTO's revised texts on agriculture, industrial goods Following the revised negotiating texts on agriculture and industrial goods, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issued last week, a new proposal for freeing up trade in services ranging from air transport to banking and telecom as part of a global deal …
Determined to protect interest of its farmers and nascent industries, India will press for changes in the latest WTO proposals on agriculture and industrial goods as hard negotiations begin on Monday in Geneva on Doha Round. India has already rejected the proposals in the drafts on opening global market for …
A World Trade Organisation agreement removing barriers to commerce is "absolutely essential'' to bring down soaring food prices, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said. "We have to address the underlying problems of demand and supply of food,'' he said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, …
the European Union (eu) is mulling a "controversial' greenhouse gas reduction plan, through which it will impose a carbon tax on goods imported from countries with no emission curbs under the Kyoto regime. The tariff, seen as a threat to international trade, is part of eu's "carbon equalization system'. India …
The global food crisis has brought on riots in about a dozen countries and left many panicked world leaders scrambling for answers. Alarming increases in once-affordable basic food staples such as rice, corn, and wheat have made millions more of the world's poor vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Past food …
Biotechnology companies, who argue they could help solve the global food crisis, are hoping for a boost on Wednesday as regulators attempt to overcome the deadlock over growing genetically modified food in the European Union. With just one crop, an insect-resistant maize, approved for cultivation in the past decade and …
The revised WTO draft for negotiations in farm trade may not see the light of the day before May 12, even as the director-general, Pascal Lamy has proposed a mini-ministerial meeting on May 19. According to sources in Geneva many developing countries have suggested to the chairperson of the WTO …
More than 20 United Nations development agencies joined the World Bank and the World Trade Organization this week in Bern, Switzerland, to discuss emergency humanitarian aid and other measures to combat the growing world food crisis. The World Food Programme says it needs an extra US$755 million just to meet …
The US Congress has approved a new US$307 billion farm with majorities large enough to override President George W. Bush's veto. The legislation largely continues the current system of agricultural subsidies for the next five years.
The Doha negotiations on fisheries provide a significant opportunity to address overcapacity and overfishing. However, to be effective, future subsidy disciplines need to be coupled with stronger fishery management regimes, including in both public and private access agreements.
Progress in the Doha Round negotiations on trade and the environment remains sluggish, with little convergence in any of the key areas of the talks, including the scope of the mandate itself and the definition of products and services slated for deeper liberalisation on environmental grounds.
WTO Members disagreed in April on the extent to which future multilateral rules on fisheries subsidies should include exceptions for payments to the small-scale fishing sector, as Canada and some other developed countries sought controversial exemptions for their own industry.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday ordered a top level task force to take on the global crisis caused by rising food prices and urged key producer nations to end export bans. The UN chief said the immediate priority must be to "feed the hungry" and called for urgent funding …
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon began talks yesterday with key development agencies on how to tackle the crisis provoked by soaring food and fuel prices. "This is an exciting time for the United Nations, but it is also a time when we are challenged to exert our best efforts to …
Dubai: In a renewed effort to achieve a global trade deal under Doha Round of multilateral talks, trade ministers of India and the US will meet next week to bridge differences on farm subsidies and opening markets for industrial and agricultural products. "I am meeting USTR (Susan Schwab) on May …
The European Commission might again put pff a decision on whether farmers can grow more genetically modified crops when it holds a long-awaited biotech policy debate in May, officials said yesterday, Reuters reports from Brussels. After months of expectation, the Commission has finally decided on May 7 for a debate …
Food inflation in the time of rising fuel prices has a new dimension: diversion of more and more farmland for bio-fuel production. Three experts debate whether food and fuel are either/or choice. What is the long-term solution for obtaining food security? Can a multilateral body like the WTO or UN …
Developing countries are fighting hard to retain the right to increase farm im-port tariffs in spite of slashing them rapidly to cope with the global food crisis. Faint signs of progress in the troubled "Doha round" of global trade talks last week in Geneva were imperilled by a fresh dispute …
