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EU Presents Revised Services Requests To WTO Members
In an effort to give impetus to the ongoing WTO services negotiations, the EU has moved forward in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) request and offer process by presenting a revised compilation of requests for market-opening bilaterally to 103 WTO Members. The revised requests, presented on 25 January, contain a list of…
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Key Members Agree To Step Up Pace Of WTO Negotiations
Trade ministers from influential WTO Member countries agreed at a 29 January ‘mini-ministerial’ to focus on five key negotiating areas in order to make "concrete progress" in the ongoing Doha Round trade liberalisation talks before the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference scheduled for December this year. However, Members appeared to differ on what exactly is necessary…
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US Pressures Guatemala To Strengthen Data Protection Rules
The US government has threatened to delay congressional proceedings on the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) because of US concerns regarding a new intellectual property law overwhelmingly passed by the Guatemalan parliament in December 2004. The Bush administration claims that the new law eliminates the five-year protection period for clinical trial data, and…
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Corrigendum
The Esquel factory closure in Mauritius mentioned in the article entitled "Post-Quota Textile Trade Starts To Take Shape" in the 26 January 2005 issue of BRIDGES Weekly (Volume 9, Number 2) took place in 2003, and was unrelated to quota-related closures referred to elsewhere in the article. Although the Esquel Group closed its pants factory…
- In Brief
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Hong Kong Civil Society Organisations Prepare For December WTO Ministerial
FIRST PHASE OF CAN-MERCOSUR AGREEMENT ENTERS INTO FORCE A free trade agreement between Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay came into effect on 1 February as the first step towards a wider trade agreement between the Andean Community (CAN) and the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) signed at the end of 2004. Regional news sources say that the agreement…
- WTO in Brief
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WTO In Brief
SUGAR DISPUTE: BRAZIL, THAILAND, AUSTRALIA FILE COUNTER APPEALS On 25 January, Brazil, Australia and Thailand, co-complainants in the dispute against the EU’s subsidized sugar export regime filed separate appeals at the WTO contesting the 15 October panel ruling on the case. The appeals focus on the panel’s decision not…
- Events
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Events
For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar. If you would like to submit an event, please email us. ICTSD Event 9 February, Geneva, Switzerland: THE KYOTO PROTOCOL AND THE FLEXIBLE MECHANISMS - WHAT’S THE TRADE CONNECTION? ICTSD is organising an informal "Café and Croissant" meeting which…
- Resources
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Resources
Call for Comments MODEL INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Draft, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), January 2005. IISD has prepared a model international investment agreement in an effort to update the current model, developed almost 50 years ago, with its near-exclusive focus on the rights of foreign investors. IISD’s draft model agreement…