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A proposal floated by the World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo during his meetings with seven major developed and developing countries to bring about convergence on the domestic support pillar of the Doha agriculture package has now surfaced in a non-paper issued by Australia and Canada, several trade envoys told the SUNS.

A report presented by the World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo on Wednesday (June 17) about his consultations with select trade envoys in different configurations raised more questions than answers over the continued attempts to rescue one major developed country which remains opposed to a developmental outcome in the domestic support pillar of the agriculture package for concluding the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) trade negotiations by the end of the year.

A majority of developing countries, at an informal meeting of the Special Session of the WTO Agriculture Committee on Tuesday (16 June), underlined that the Rev. 4 draft agriculture modalities text should remain the basis for moving forward the negotiations in agriculture.

A large majority of Members, mainly developing countries, have voiced strong support at the meeting of the TRIPS Council (9-10 June) for the request by the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for an extension of the transitional period with regard to the intellectual property protection of pharmaceutical products, which is set to expire on 1 January 2016.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, Mr. Roberto Azevedo, in his current drive to conclude the Doha Development Round at the forthcoming Nairobi Ministerial meet, appears to have floated Thursday a concept on domestic agriculture support, upending all the collective efforts hitherto on further reforms in Agriculture, mandated by the Agreement on Agriculture of the Marrakesh Treaty of 1994.

Trade ministers of leading developing countries denounced at Paris on Thursday (June 4) attempts by major developed countries to force a decision on the so-called "re-calibration" approach to lower the level of ambition of the post-Bali work program to conclude the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations later this year, several officials said.

There is still no clarity on re-calibration, simplification and doabilities, India told an informal meeting at the level of Heads of Delegation (HOD) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Monday (1 June).

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr. Roberto Azevedo, has issued to members what appears to be a sanitized version of his meetings and issues discussed with trade envoys in different configurations over the last one month. A glimpse of the closed-door consultations between the director-general and select trade envoys in various configurations were reported by different publications, including the SUNS.

Today, 341 global civil society organizations – including development advocates, trade unions, farmers’ organizations, consumer and environmental groups from over 100 countries – sent a letter to WTO members today urging them to abandon the WTO expansion talks and instead focus on an urgent agenda to fix existing damaging rules in the WTO.

De aprobarse en su versión actual, el Acuerdo sobre el Comercio de Servicios (TISA, por sus siglas en inglés) podría llevar a las naciones participantes a frenar o incluso a revertir regulaciones financieras adoptadas tras la crisis financiera de 2008, como las concernientes a la restricción de las dimensiones de las entidades bancarias, aplicada para que éstas no puedan volverse “demasiado grandes como para fallar”.