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Last February 28, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), PUMALAG and the IBON Foundation organized a Roundtable Discussion on WTO and the SP/ SSM in the UP Hotel in Quezon City. It was a lively discussion attended by around 100 participants from peasant organizations, fisher folk groups, trade unions, peasant women organizations, religious congregations, anti-imperialist organizations, a representative in Congress and the Cuban Ambassador as well as the Charges de Affaires of Venezuela.

In a new paper, IATP explores the internal politics of U.S. agriculture to help uncover how the U.S. will play agriculture in 2007.

The Indonesian Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, has maintained that Indonesia will continue withholding its bird flu virus samples from foreign laboratories until there is a new global mechanism for virus sharing that has better terms for developing countries.

Vowing to let Pascal Lamy hear the loud cries of poor sectors, farmers and fishers gate crashed and disrupted a meeting today organized by Philippine business with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy.

The relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity and the issue of enforcement of TRIPS provisions dominated the discussions at a meeting of the TRIPS Council on Tuesday 13 February.

The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Margaret Chan, has sent a letter to Thailand's Health Minister expressing regret for the embarrassment caused to his government by remarks she was reported to have made in Bangkok that were critical of the compulsory licenses granted by the government for three medicines.

At a meeting of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services at the WTO on Friday 2 February, WTO members reiterated that services is central to the 'triangle' of issues on market access in agriculture and NAMA negotiations.

The prospects of forward movement in WTO talks seems bleak if developed countries do not give a clear commitment to drastically reduce their support to the farm sector.

New disciplines are urgently needed to restrict the developed countries' wrong use of Green Box subsidies that are presently permitted under WTO rules, otherwise these subsidies will continue to distort agricultural production and trade, at the expense of developing countries.