Bridges

Volume 10 • Number 7 November 2006

  • US Elections, Trade and the WTO
    While speculation is rife on the trade policy implications of the Democratic victory in the US midterm elections, trade diplomats in Geneva are gearing up to restarting the suspended the Doha Round negotiations early next year. The US Congress faces two major, and interlinked, decisions with multilateral trade implications in the coming months: redrafting or prolonging…
  • The Impact of Sensitive Products on Trade and Development
    The exclusion of a certain number of ‘sensitive’ agricultural products from full tariff cuts is more likely to limit effective market opening than the additional flexibilities available to developing countries alone. When the Doha Round was suspended in July, inadequate progress in domestic agricultural support and market access was cited as the main reason for the…
  • Ag Talks Resume, Scope Uncertain
    Informal negotiating sessions have resumed in the WTO Committee on Agriculture, but any breakthroughs will depend on movement at the political level. Crawford Falconer, who chairs the agriculture negotiations, convened the first informal meeting on 10 November at his own initiative as the ambassador of New Zealand. He described the occasion as a ‘transparency forum’ intended…
  • TRIPS Council: Divided We Stand
    A proposal to give the WTO a monitoring role in the enforcement of intellectual property rights has been strongly rejected by a number of developing countries, while developed countries continue to oppose new provisions to prevent biopiracy. In a paper submitted jointly to the October meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property…
  • Russia, US Agree on WTO Accession Pact
    Russia’s drawn-out quest for WTO membership cleared a major hurdle with the conclusion of its bilateral negotiations with the US on 10 November. The major element in the breakthrough was Russia’s promise to open its market to US beef and pork. Russia has restricted imports of both on sanitary grounds, beef due to concern about BSE…
  • A New Chapter Opens in the Banana Dispute
    Ecuador has requested ‘prompt consultations’ over whether the European Union’s banana import tariff complies with its WTO commitments. Ecuador’s compliance consultation request bears on three points in particular: (i) whether the different import duties applied by the EU to bananas from most-favoured-nation (MFN) suppliers and those from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States…
  • China’s Trade Policies Under Scrutiny
    China was subjected to intense questioning about its industrial subsidies and intellectual property rights enforcement during reviews of its implementation of WTO commitments held in October. China forwarded its first ever subsidy notification to the WTO in April. The 88-page document lists 78 subsidy programmes, but provides details on only 29 of them, most of which…
  • WTO Rules and Sustainable Energy Policies
    Interest in multilateral regulation of energy and natural resources policies is increasing as economic growth and the deepening geographical mismatch between demand and production boost international oil and gas trade and prices Energy is distributed highly unevenly throughout the globe. Sixty-nine percent of known oil reserves are held by members of the Organisation of the Petroleum…
  • A Sustainable Development Roadmap for the WTO?
    The current impasse in the Doha negotiations offers those who seek to improve the functioning of the multilateral trading system both grounds for concern about the present model, and the breathing space in which to thoughtfully consider how it might better serve today’s needs. In considering the directions in which the WTO might evolve, we should…
  • A Preliminary Analysis of the WTO Biotech Ruling
    The long-awaited report of the WTO panel examining the US-Argentina-Canada challenge of the EU’s application of its biotech regulations was finally released on 29 September. The most immediate question for other WTO Members will be how the more than 2000 page ruling will affect their policy and regulatory decisions on biotechnology. The Findings in a Nutshell The…
  • The New China–Africa Partnership
    Chinese and African leaders have sealed a deal that is to vastly expand China’s aid, trade and investment in the resource-rich but cash-poor continent. At a China-Africa summit held in November, China’s President Hu Jintao promised to double Beijing’s current level of development assistance to African countries by 2009. He also pledged US$5 billion in concessional…
  • US Korea, Malaysia FTAs Inch Forward
    Free trade negotiations between the US and Korea will not conclude this year as originally hoped. During the fourth negotiating round in late October, the two sides addressed less contentious issues such as customs administration, re-manufactured goods, administration of agriculture tariff rate quotas and anticorruption provisions. Progress in these areas was a welcome change from the…
  • WIPO General Assembly Charts Way Forward
    Member governments of the World Intellectual Property Organisation reached agreement on how to proceed with negotiations on a new broadcasting treaty, as well as proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda during the fall meeting of the institution’s highest decision-making body. Unauthorised re-transmission/recording of broadcasts – facilitated by new means of communication, such as broadband and…
  • A Trade Strategy for Sustainable Bioenergy
    Biofuels hold promise for curbing carbon dioxide emissions, reducing dependence on imported fuels and generating employment in the agricultural sector, but also pose challenges with regard to their potential impact on food security, environmental sustainability and social justice. An ICTSD side event held during the UN Conference on Climate Change in Nairobi brought together experts and…
  • In Brief
  • SPS Committee Update
    At the October meeting of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), eight South American and African countries called for a more systematic discussion of private sector SPS standards, such as supermarket requirements that are more demanding than those required by national legislation. To support their case, some Members pointed to Article 13 of…
  • Vietnam’s Accession
    After 11 years of negotiations, WTO Members accepted Vietnam’s accession to the world trade body on 7 November. According to local media, Vietnamese exports are expected to grow from US$32.2 billion in 2005 to US$100 billion over the next five to seven years. Anticipating the WTO accession, foreign direct investment in Vietnam increased by 41 percent…
  • Gambling Ruling Update
    The compliance panel’s verdict on US implementation of the April 2005 Appellate Body ruling in the Internet gambling dispute may be delayed until January or February 2007, Antigua and Barbuda’s legal advisor Mark Mendel has said. Antigua and Barbuda maintains that the US has taken no action to comply with the ruling (Bridges Year 10 No.6,…
  • A4T and the WTO
    The WTO’s role in Aid for Trade (A4T) will essentially be one of monitoring, but the institutional arrangements to do so are yet to be established. WTO Director- General Lamy told Members on 10 October that there was ‘broad agreement’ that existing mechanisms should not be replaced or duplicated, and that the WTO Secretariat was…
  • EU-China Trade
    The European Commission released a new EU-China trade and investment strategy on 24 October. The paper emphasised the benefits of China’s WTO accession to European investors, exporters and consumers, but also acknowledged that Chinese competition had real consequences for ‘companies and individual workers in Europe’. It highlighted a number of obstacles to market access, such…
  • EPA Update
    Representatives of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States are increasingly calling for an extension of the end-December 2007 deadline for concluding Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union. They have also urged the EU to strengthen the development dimension of EPAs through more financing for their implementation, as well as lower…
  • EU, India Move Toward Trade Talks
    The EU and India have agreed to step up efforts towards a ‘broad-based’ bilateral trade and investment pact, aiming to conclude a deal by 2009. The carefully-worded joint statement issued at the conclusion of the 13 October EU-India leaders’ summit did not refer to a formal launch of bilateral negotiations, saying only that both sides had…
  • US-Andes Update
    Already-signed US free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia face opposition from leading Democrats, who are demanding that the Office of the US Trade Representative renegotiate their labour provisions. As written, the labour provisions require Peru and Colombia to enforce their own labour laws, but do not oblige them to comply with all the ‘core’ rights…