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 …
In 20 years, the world has come full circle: in the mid-1980s the process of globalisation intensified with the rich countries taking the lead in interconnecting countries because it was in their interest. Now in 2006, the same rich countries find the process of globalisation - economic and ecological - …
The World Trade Organization's (WTO's) mini-ministerial at Geneva on July 1, 2006, ended in a stalemate, with India pulling out of the trade talks. India's commerce minister Kamal Nath walked out of the meet a day before its scheduled conclusion. The negotiations turned sour when EU and the US asked …
the World Trade Organization (wto) mini-ministerial scheduled for late April has been called off. The meet intended to break the impasse on farm and industrial tariff negotiations. The April 30 deadline set at the Hong Kong wto ministerial last December for working out modalities has been missed. Though no new …
Two things that Union minister of commerce Kamal Nath claims as the most successful outcome of the World Trade Organization's (wto's) Hong Kong ministerial are the agreements on special products (sps) and the Special Safeguard Mechanism (ssm) for the developing world. But with the April 30 deadline for implementing the …
India is moving towards amending a law to introduce provisions that will make it impossible for Indian pharmaceutical companies to produce generic versions of patented drugs. If it goes through we can say goodbye to cheap versions of expensive, sometimes life-saving, drugs produced by mncs. The government wants to amend …
A World Trade Organization (wto) panel has ruled that Mexico violated global trade regulations in a long-standing soft drinks dispute with the us. In 2002, Mexico levied a 20 per cent tax on drinks that are sweetened with anything other than cane sugar grown in Mexico. Before the tax, Mexico …
The conflict between trade and environmental concerns was brought out in the open on the global stage in early February at a World Trade Organization (wto) ministerial. The European Union (eu) had banned some genetically modified organisms (gmos) from 1999 to 2003. The us, with Argentina and Canada, challenged this …
the World Trade Organization's (wto's) ruling that the European Union (eu) was not justified in blocking imports of genetically modified (gm) crops has created major problems for the international community. A panel set up under the dispute settlement mechanism of the organisation has sided with Canada, Argentina and the us. …
This article examines the divergent political responses to unplanned exposure to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the Global South. Although scientific and domestic political considerations have some relevance to explaining different positions among developing countries, trade considerations appear to be a principal driver of GMO policy. This consideration is strikingly …
In the first fortnight of March, the Convention of Biological Diversity (cbd) shall be put to test. The eighth Conference of Parties (cop-8) will be held in Brazil from March 20-31 bringing together 188 countries, just a few months after the World Trade Organisation (wto) ministerial in Hong Kong. A …
A turf war is being waged: the World Trade Organization (wto) and the Convention on Biodiversity (cbd) are wrangling over the control of the biodiversity industry. The issues of conservation, access and benefit sharing from trade in biodiversity had the members divided at the 11th meeting of cbd's Subsidiary Body …
http://www.focusweb.org North versus South With the privileged North calling the shots in global development policies, the view of South remains neglected. Keeping this in mind,
If Kamal Nath, India's Union minister for commerce and industry, is to be believed, the Hong Kong ministerial of the World Trade Organization (wto) was a big success for developing nations. His claims rest on the fact that the talks succeeded in getting developed countries to agree on a time-frame …
India Development Foundation funded by the British High Commission, carried out this study on challenges to investments and trade in five sectors of agri-business in India - dairy, horticulture, oilseeds, wheat milling, and poultry. This report attempts at answering some questions and showcases some successful cases where players in select …
The World Trade Organiation (wto) has extended the deadline for its 32-member Least Developed Countries (ldcs) to comply with the wto intellectual property (ip) regime until July 2013. The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (trips) agreement, effective since 1995, had earlier given ldc s until January 2006 for …
Recent events reinforce the view that the ambitious trade liberalisation agenda that developed countries, primarily the U.S. and the E.U., have tried to realise through the WTO is a non-starter. It is now official: the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to be held in Hong Kong …
