Archive

A long-standing fight by several developing countries to amend the WTO's TRIPS Agreement to oblige members to get patent applicants to disclose the source of origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge took a step forward this week when six countries proposed the text of new provisions to be added to the TRIPS Agreement.

The WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access for Non-Agricultural Products (NAMA), at an informal consultation Wednesday (31 May), discussed proposals dealing with non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

Links to three new submission in relation to agriculture market access.

It's the 'Come to Jesus' moment for the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations. 'We are now in the red zone,' World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said recently. 'And we are not far from the red part of this red zone. The timetable is a number of days, not weeks.'

There has been no progress made in the negotiations this week on non-agriculture market access (NAMA) in the WTO on the so-called 'exception' issues, according to Ambassador Don Stephenson of Canada, Chair of the NAMA Negotiating Group.

The United States yesterday sharply opposed the idea of commencing text-based negotiations on disclosing the origin of biological resources and 'traditional knowledge' in patent applications (WTD, 5/26/06).

India has warned that it may withdraw some of its services offers if developed countries do not respond to its requests in the area of off-shore services (mode 1) and movement of workers and professionals (mode 4).

A number of recent studies have predicted losses for Africa from the Doha trade round, in the industrial sector, but also in agriculture. This is contrary to the conventional view that many African policy makers have.

Link to a new proposal by the African Group for modalities on agricultural commodities.

A senior US agricultural trade negotiator in the Doha Development Agenda commented yesterday that he has not seen so much 'negotiating enthusiasm' in Geneva for months - but not enough to create a 'level of ambition' that would lead the way to an eventual conclusion (WTD, 6/6/06).