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The World Trade Organisation on Friday launched a formal investigation into allegations by the US and Mexico that China is unfairly subsidising exports through tax breaks and other incentives.

A national consultation on

New Delhi, Aug 29 India would demand revision of the draft on non agricultural market access for the WTO Doha round negotiations to move forward when it resume on September 3 in Geneva.

The United States' 2007 Farm Bill, which has been passed by the House of Representatives and will next be considered by the Senate, is likely to be a stumbling block in the negotiations to finalise the "modalities" in agriculture, when the World Trade Organisation resumes its work in early September.

In the current negotiations on agricultural subsidies at the World Trade Organisation, much of the attention has been given to the issue of the overall trade-distorting support (OTDS) of developed countries.

The leaders of Indonesia and Japan signed a free trade pact in Jakarta on Monday that will eliminate well over 90 per cent of tariffs in trade between the two nations that last year was worth $27.2bn.

Analysts here say an economic partnership agreement due to be signed next week between Indonesia and Japan will do more to benefit Japanese companies than domestic businesses.

Hundreds of representatives of social and labour organisations, faith-based, community-based and health networks, small farmers, traders, women and youth organisations, and developmental, human rights and environmental NGOs from across the whole of the Southern African region have gathered in a Peoples Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, 15-16 August 2007, parallel to the SADC Heads of State summit.

Philippine Ambassador to Japan Domingo Siazon recently made a pitch for the Senate ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), saying that Japan's aging population represents a large labor market for local nurses and caregivers.

IGJ Statement on Indonesia-Japan EPA