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WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has cancelled a 'mini ministerial' meeting which was intended to finalise negotiations in the controversial trade round. The meeting would have excluded most countries from the developing world, and was cancelled following angry protests from developing countries, NGOs and trade unions.

Link to the text of a statement adopted by the metalworkers unions affiliated to the International Metalworkers Federation in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

India is deliberately weakening its bargaining position in WTO by unnecessarily resorting to wheat imports against zero duty and relaxed quarantine norms when the granary is full.

As WTO negotiators miss yet another deadline for concluding world trade talks, developing country negotiators are no doubt asking themselves if they might be better off with no deal at all. According to a new policy report by Tufts University researchers, they have good reason to question the agreement, as hidden costs may well outstrip the limited gains predicted for most countries.

In this final week of negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) before the end-April deadline for modalities, WTO members remain polarized over the key issues of the formula for making tariff cuts and flexibilities from the formula for developing country members.

The European Union and the United States blamed each other on Friday for a stalemate in global trade talks which put beyond reach an end of April deadline for a key deal on farm and industrial goods.

A group of 125 civil society organizations, in a letter sent Tuesday to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, has called for the cancellation of a mini-Ministerial reportedly involving only about 30 WTO Members which Lamy had planned for end April and early May in Geneva.

The mood at the World Trade Organisation headquarters turned even more sombre Wednesday 19 April as many delegates have become convinced that it would be impossible to agree to modalities for agriculture and non-agricultural market access by the 30 April deadline set by the Hong Kong Ministerial.

Links to excerpts from Martin Khor's news article on this development which provides some background and context to the G33 letter. And the G33 letter to Lamy for your information and action.

The publication of a compilation of references to trade and trade-related issues by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.