Archive - Mar 2007

Date

March 31st

8 RP groups join call vs WTO expansion

30 March, 2007
At least 61 non-government organizations, including eight from the Philippines, asked the United States Congress to block the expansion of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

March 30th

ASEAN tables emergency safeguard proposal in GATS talks

29 March, 2007
After years of protracted negotiations among WTO members on having an emergency safeguard mechanism to deal with adverse economic impacts as a result of services liberalization in the WTO, the ASEAN group (excluding Singapore) has tabled a proposal on it.

Key Congressional Democrats against TRIPS-plus in FTAs

29 March, 2007
Twelve influential members of the United States Congress, in a letter to US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, have urged the 'immediate reconsideration' of certain TRIPS plus provisions in US Free Trade Agreements so as to ensure adherence to the World Trade Organization's 2001 Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.

African cotton farmers being hit by subsidies and privatization

29 March, 2007
Poor cotton farmers in West Africa are facing new pressures from low commodity prices and from privatization programs being advocated by international donors such as the World Bank, the international aid agency Oxfam warned Thursday.

South countries voices concerns over Northern subsidies to cotton

29 March, 2007
The Group of 20 (G20) developing countries at the WTO said Thursday that trade-distorting subsidies from the developed countries are at the root of the critical situation of cotton for developing countries, and is one of the major inequalities in international agricultural trade.

The NAMA Formula vs. Sectorals

29 March, 2007
The European Union and members of the NAMA-11 coalition - including South Africa, India, Brazil and Egypt - yesterday differed with the United States over the pace and timing of sectoral tariff elimination talks in the Doha Development Agenda nonagricultural market access architecture.

March 29th

713 Labor, Farm, Environmental, Other Groups Tell Democratic Leadership: More Fast Track for Pres. Bush is Absolutely Unacceptable

28 March, 2007
Widespread Opposition to Fast Track Weighs on Administration Consideration of Recent Democratic Ways and Means Proposal to ‘Fix” Free Trade Pacts

TWN Analysis on the Proposed Malaysia-US FTA

28 March, 2007
Third World Network (TWN) prepares an analysis on the Malaysia-US FTA looking at the implications of the agreement on the various economic sectors in Malaysia as well as on the society as a whole.

March 28th

Full Tanks at the Cost of Empty Stomachs: The Expansion of the Sugarcane Industry in Latin America

27 March, 2007
We, representatives of organizations and social movements of Brasil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, gathered at a forum on the expansion of the sugarcane industry in Latin America, declare that:

Farmers against patenting of seeds

21 March, 2007

Indian farmers have joined hands with their counterparts in Europe and Latin America to protest against patenting of seeds and life forms.

NEW DELHI, MAR 27: