NAMA / ITA / EGs

Country tables on NAMA

25 April, 2006
Carin Smaller
The four new simulation exercises by Esther Busser from the ICFTU on India, Indonesia, Philippines and Mexico.

South Cone Metalworkers Unions on NAMA

24 April, 2006
Carin Smaller
Link for the English translation of the statement circulated in Spanish.

South Cone Metalworkers Unions on NAMA

23 April, 2006
Carin Smaller
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.

WTO members resigned to missed deadlines as week of talks ends

23 April, 2006
Martin Khor (TWN), Geneva, 21 April 2005
The World Trade Organisation's April 30 deadline for attaining 'modalities' in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) will be missed, it became clear Friday as delegations wound up a week of negotiations on the two subjects.

African Ministers reject 'partial modalities' approach to WTO April deadline

19 April, 2006
Martin Khor (TWN), Nairobi 17 April 2006
African Trade Ministers have declared that the WTO modalities on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) that are scheduled to be concluded at the end of April must be 'all-inclusive' and indicated that they would not accept 'partial modalities' that leave out issues of concern to African countries.

No easy road to WTO's end-April deadline

8 April, 2006
Martin Khor (TWN), Geneva, 6 April 2006
The WTO's Director General Pascal Lamy by all accounts is sticking to the end-April deadline for reaching agreement on modalities for agriculture and non-agriculture market access (NAMA).

Lamy's India visit may break WTO deadlock

2 April, 2006
Ashok B. Sharma, Financial Express
Keen to fizzle out the logjam in WTO talks, director general Pascal Lamy will be on a two-day visit to India - an influential member of the world body - beginning on April 5.

Lamy should ensure fair trade

2 April, 2006
Ashok B. Sharma, Financial Express
There has been no substantial progress in agriculture trade negotiations in Geneva. The April 30 deadline set by the WTO director-general, Pascal Lamy seems unlikely to be met.

3 Reports from the chair of the NAMA Negotiations

29 March, 2006
Carin Smaller
The Chair of the NAMA negotiations, Ambassador Stephenson, issued 3reports based on his consultations form the last negotiating week.

Report by Chair on NAMA Negotiations, 20 March 2006

26 March, 2006
Carin Smaller
A link to a report issued by the Chair of the NAMA negotiations on his recent consultations.

NAMA and Agriculture Papers

23 March, 2006
Carin Smaller
Links to the NAMA 11 Statement on ensuring a fair, balanced and development friendly outcome on NAMA and a paper by Argentina on how to implement paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration which aims to achieve a balanced outcome between agriculture and NAMA market access.

Developing countries criticise North for anti-development NAMA demands

22 March, 2006
Goh Chien Yen (TWN), Geneva 20 March 2006
A group of developing countries, known as the NAMA-11, sharply criticised on Monday 20 March the demands of the developed countries for drastic reductions of their industrial tariffs by developing countries, and said the demands 'threaten to create an anti-development outcome' in the Doha talks.

NAMA Simulations

20 March, 2006
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
A link to the results from the NAMA simulations. It was sent by the U.S. to the Chair of the NAMA negotiations to circulate to all members.

G24 meeting warned of de-industrialization effects of NAMA talks

16 March, 2006
Martin Khor, TWN
The proposals for cutting tariffs of industrial products in the World Trade Organisation's current negotiations will have significant adverse effects on developing countries' industrialization, according to a paper presented at the Group of 24 Technical Group meeting held in Geneva on Friday 17 March.

Little Progress in London on DDA

12 March, 2006
Washington Trade Daily
Trade chiefs of the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, Australia and Japan made scant progress in narrowing differences over the core elements for Doha Development Agenda agriculture and industrials packages on Saturday an outcome that placed the conclusion of negotiating modalities by the end of next month in jeopardy (WTD, 3/10/06).

Talks fail to break deadlock over trade deal

12 March, 2006
Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent, The Independent Online Edition
Prospects of a new trade deal to end rich countries' farm subsidies and open up poor nations' markets were left hanging in the balance yesterday after a meeting of the world's top economic powers ended without a breakthrough.

Differences remain after week of NAMA talks

8 March, 2006
Kanaga Raja, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar06/7)
The Negotiating Group on Market Access for Non- Agricultural Products (NAMA) at a week-long meeting (ending Friday, 3 March), discussed sectoral initiatives, flexibilities for developing countries and paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong Declaration that calls for a comparably high level of ambition in market access for agriculture and NAMA.

Correction - US textile industry seeks different types of sectorals in NAMA negotiations

8 March, 2006
Carin Smaller
Below are links to two letters from different U.S. textile industry groups. The first one calls for a sectoral on textiles that would provide special treatment for the textile sector by resurrecting protection in the textile and apparel sectors.

Divergences between developed and developing countries on NAMA

7 March, 2006
Goh Chien Yen, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar06/6)
WTO members remain sharply divided on the industrial tariff negotiations, as the NAMA consultations stretched late into Wednesday 1 March evening. One of the main areas of contention appears to be over the special and differential treatment (S&D) to be accorded to developing countries, as stipulated in paragraph 8 of Annex B to the July 2004 Framework.

Chair of WTO NAMA Negotiations Says Window of Opportunity for Deal Closing

7 March, 2006
Daniel Pruzin
The chairman of the World Trade Organization's negotiating group on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) warned March 7 that the window of opportunity was rapidly closing for a deal in the sector which would allow the Doha Round to be completed by the end of 2006.