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Open IT Standards Would Benefit Developing Countries
While developing countries have taken many measures to improve their integration into the knowledge society, many have largely overlooked one of the most useful tools: open information technology standards. Information technology (IT) standards are the co-operation agreements, or specifications, that make networked computing possible. In a network such as that embodied by the Internet – and…
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Tackling the Research Gap on Neglected Diseases
Members of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have started negotiations for a global strategy to boost research on diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. At issue is how to respond to the international recognition of the need to improve research and development of new drugs to treat so-called ‘neglected’ tropical diseases that overwhelmingly, or exclusively, affect…
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The Development Agenda: The Implications for IP Governance and the Future of WIPO
In September 2007, the World Intellectual Property Organisation established a ‘development agenda’, which is likely to have important long-term implications for the organisation’s future, as well as the discourse on intellectual property more generally. The Development Agenda is essentially a set of 45 recommendations, grouped by WIPO member states into six clusters, namely: technical assistance…
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ASEAN Strengthens Trade Ties
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has concluded new trade agreements with Japan and South Korea, as well as agreed on modest steps to mitigate climate change. The ‘comprehensive’ economic partnership agreement inked between ASEAN and Japan during the November ASEAN summit in Singapore covers trade in goods and services, as well as investment and development…
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US Farm Bill
When this issue of Bridges went to press, it looked unlikely that new farm support legislation would be approved by the US Congress before the end of the year. In July, the House of Representatives endorsed legislation that largely maintained the level of government support to farmers under the current farm bill. The Senate agriculture committee…
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Update on Pending US FTAs
The US Senate approved the US-Peru free trade agreement on 4 December. The fate of three other pending FTAs, however, remains uncertain. The Peru FTA, already endorsed by the House of Representatives on 8 November, is the first free trade deal approved by Congress since Democrats took control of both chambers a year ago. In May…
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China and Mercosur: Perpectives for Bilateral Trade
While China’s economic importance to Latin America, and to Mercosur in particular, has increased exponentially over the past few years, countries in the region should be wary of potential competition in their domestic markets. Since the opening up of the Chinese economy and the reduction of export and import controls, Brazil and Argentina’s foreign trade has…
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Free Trade Agreements in the Americas: Worth the Investment?
Nations that negotiate new trade agreements with the United States hope that such deals will attract foreign investment. This is certainly what Peruvians, Colombians and Panamanians are hoping for as an outcome of agreements currently in the pipeline for US Congressional approval. The promise of investment is that it will translate into stable jobs, technology transfer…
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EU Offers ACP Interim Trade Deals to Meet EPA Deadline
The European Commission has pulled back from its threat to end long-established trade privileges for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries unless they sign comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements before the end of the year. With less than a month remaining before existing preferential trade rules expire, the Commission has offered to sign interim deals limited to goods-only…
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World Bank: Border Taxes Could Violate Trade Rules
The International Trade and Climate Change report released by the World Bank in October 2007 found that carbon taxes do not hurt countries’ international industrial competitiveness. However, these policies have often been accompanied by increased exports by energy-intensive industries, lending weight to the notion that the subsidies and exemptions that most countries have granted to…
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Unpacking the Wonder Tool: Border Charges in Support
Competitiveness is one of the potential flashpoints in the run-up to the Bali climate conference. The concern is that strong national measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will leave domestic producers at a disadvantage relative to those in countries that do not take similar actions. Competitiveness concerns are traditionally overblown, although they may be more salient in…
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Bali Climate Conference: The Next Two Years Will Tell
The most important outcome of the December climate change conference in Bali was to bring all governments on board to negotiate a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, ending years of disagreement on a global approach to the challenges posed by rising temperatures. Two weeks of arduous negotiations in Bali resulted in a unanimous recognition that ‘deep…
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Drivers for Environmental Goods Trade
At a recent ICTSD roundtable held in Geneva trade negotiators and other stakeholders engaged in a frank exchange of views on the market and trade realities of the so-called ‘convergence- set’ of 153 products that has been informally proposed by the Friends of the Environment Goods group for deeper liberalisation in the WTO. Drawing on the…
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IP News in Brief
Frustrated by both the increase in counterfeit products and the continued deadlock on enforcement-related issues in the WTO’s Council for Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (see page 9), eight countries have entered into preliminary discussions on a plurilateral anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced in October. She said that Canada, the EU, Japan,…