"The Doha Round of international trade negotiations collapsed mainly because of a fight for advantage in agricultural markets by large and powerful countries, corporations and lobbies," FAO said today.
EXPRESSING hope over efforts to revive the deadlocked World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “ Development dimension must get the prominence and attention — not in term of words, but in terms of solid deeds.”
By Sangeeta Shashikant, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
Many more cases are being filed in India by groups representing HIV/AIDS patients against the granting of patents for HIV/AIDS medicines, adding to the initial two cases after a 2005 amendment to the Indian patent law.
Pakistan has shown its reservation over partial resumption of negotiations on some issues saying talks should be resumed across the board on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), it is learnt.
By Martin Khor, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
The WTO General Council which met on 27 July did not take a formal decision on the suspension of the Doha negotiations, with the Chairperson merely "taking note" of the statements on the issue that were made by the Director-General and by the delegations.
Shed no tears for the recent collapse of the trade talks, widely portrayed as a big setback for the trading system and developing nations. The suspension opens the door to a more realistic agenda.
During July 27-29, 2006, FTA Watch, GRAIN and Bilaterals.org organized the first ever international workshop to make a strategic analysis of the struggles against FTA in Bangkok, Thailand.
