Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 42 • 12th December 2002
UK Legislature Launches Inquiry On Trade And Development In WTO Round
On 26 November, a committee of the UK House of Commons agreed to undertake an inquiry into trade and development, particularly to aspects of the WTO’s Doha agenda and Members’ commitments to making the Doha round of trade negotiations a "development round". According to a press statement, the House of Commons’ International Development Committee will consider the policies and practices of the UK’s Department for International Development, the UK government, and relevant multilateral organisations, in relation to trade and international development. In particular, the inquiry will address agricultural reform in the context of the Doha commitments, including the impact of agricultural support on livelihoods and food security in developing countries; market access, including the EC’s Everything-But- Arms initiative for least-developed countries and non-tariff barriers; special and differential treatment, development box proposals and food security; and developing countries’ negotiating capacities, and productive capacities, and efforts to build these capacities. The Committee invites organisations and individuals, including from developing countries, with relevant experience and expertise to submit memoranda which address any or all of these issues, or which address issues that they regard as central to the trade and development agenda.
For further information on inputs to the Inquiry, visit http://www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/indhome.htm or contact Alan Hudson, Committee Specialist, at tel: (+44) 020 7219 1522; email: Hudsona@parliament.uk.
ICTSD reporting.