Archive - 2009

Geneva, 28 May (Kanaga Raja) -- The United Nations on Wednesday downgraded its economic forecast for 2009, projecting the world economy to shrink by 2.6% this year, with the poorest countries to be hit the hardest.
 
The downgrade comes on top of an already pessimistic UN estimate five months ago, when it had projected a decline by 0.5%.
 
The even grimmer economic picture has been outlined by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) in its mid-year report "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009".
 

WTO chief Pascal Lamy (left) will attend a meeting in Bali next week as part of attempts to restart global trade talks

Many developing countries appear to have opposed and/or voiced concerns over a suggestion by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy for work along "two simultaneous tracks", one on modalities in agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and another for commencing the scheduling exercise in both these areas.

The WTO General Council on Tuesday decided to convene its seventh Ministerial Conference in Geneva from 30 November to 2 December, nearly four years after its last conference in Hong Kong-China in 2005.

Next week, Australia's Trade Minister Simon Crean will attend the Pacific Island Forum Trade Ministers Meeting in Apia, Samoa.

The Stop the New Round Coalition (SNR) joins peoples’ organizations and movements across the globe in calling for the rejection of the WTO Doha Round and we demand that the Philippine government turn around and walk away from these unfair and unjust negotiations.

Statement to the COMESA Summit on the ESA-EC Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations

India and the US will hold bilateral talks soon in an attempt to narrow their differences on the ongoing Doha round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The ETF Congress, meeting in Ponta Delgada from 27-29 May 2009

The Chair of the Special Session of the TRIPS Council on Wednesday urged members to move from "understanding" each others' proposals to focussing on "more substantive" discussions in order to take forward the negotiations on a multilateral register for geographical indications (GI) for wines and spirits.