Archive

Fourteen developing countries have issued a joint paper during the services negotiations at the WTO objecting to having any reference to 'targets' as an negotiating approach in the services text of the Ministerial Declaration for the forthcoming WTO conference in Hong Kong.

The European Union on Friday 28 October afternoon presented a new proposal on agriculture which also contains its demands on other areas, especially services and non agricultural market access.

Korean movements have designated 13th to 19th November to be a week of action against APEC, with a people

Saudi Arabia was given a green light on Friday to join the World Trade Organization, in time to participate in December's crucial ministerial summit in Hong Kong

The latest maneuvers in the WTO vis a vis the GATS to torpedo its more development friendly elements is extremely worrying. This is an article on how this has been orchestrated, the opposition from developing countries, and the implications of the draft Ministerial text (26 October) for developing countries which the Chair has released.

An impasse became evident on negotiations on the major remaining issue relating to the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health when some key members appeared far apart on a solution, and disagreed even on how the process of consultations is going on, during a meeting of the TRIPS Council on 25 October.

The least developed countries in the WTO have made a request to the TRIPS Council to extend the transitional period for their implementing the TRIPS Agreement for a further 15 years after the present transition period expires at the end of this year.

President Jacques Chirac of France broke with the rest of the Union and said he was prepared to block world trade talks. Chirac's intervention came as the European Commission was due Friday to make a new offer to break the deadlock on world trade negotiations.

Title

letter sent from Commissioner Mandelson to WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy, expressing concerns about the lack of progress in the NAMA and services negotiations