Latest News

LDC TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE: Read the daily bulletin on the WTO Ministerial meeting by Unnayan Onneshan and the Third World Media Network here (Issue II - Part1 / Part2 of 14 December; Issue III of 15 December; Issue IV of 16 December; Issue V of 17 December and Issue VI of 18 December) or visit their website here.

19 December 2005

Agreement Reached on Incremental Advances in WTO Negotiations
Washington -- Trade ministers meeting in Hong Kong have accepted an agreement that incrementally advances long-stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations but leaves most politically difficult decisions for 2006. More

Globalisation, WTO talks and LDCs
EVEN before the six-day global trade talks did kick off in Hong Kong, speculations were going the rounds that the talks were doomed to failure. Even at the far end of the discussion no light could be found at the end of the tunnel of despair. More

Lukewarm Deal Keeps Trade Goals Afloat
Global negotiators have bought some more bargaining time for a comprehensive free trade deal, following a modest agreement at World Trade Organization talks in Hong Kong. Many critics say the latest agreement falls far short of fulfilling trade goals aimed at helping developing countries. There is a wide consensus that the work of the next few months will be both arduous, and crucially important. More

17 December 2005

UN: Benefits May Be Lost Without Textiles
Up to 15 percent of the benefits of a WTO package of measures to help the world's poorest countries could be lost if textiles imports from Bangladesh and Cambodia are excluded from a final deal, the U.N. said Saturday. More

Time running out as WTO bickers over subsidies, aid
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ministers made a last-ditch effort to rescue a global trade pact on Saturday, working around the clock to break deadlocks on ending farm export subsidies and boosting the exports of impoverished nations. More

14 December 2005

US, Japan promise more aid to least developed countries
HONG KONG, Dec. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- US Trade Representative Rob Portman said on Wednesday the United States will double its contribution for trade aid from 1.3 billion US dollars in 2005 to 2.7 billion dollars annually by 2010. More

China calls for immediate tariff exemptions for Least Developed Countries
Beijing, Dec 14 (PTI) China today said the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) be granted exemption from tariffs and quotas immediately and urged WTO members to take into account the world's most populous nation's "special concerns." More

Caribbean urges development agenda for small, vulnerable countries at WTO
CHRIST CHURCH, Barbados: The Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial got underway Tuesday, amidst mounting concern over the prospects for a successful outcome for the six-day meeting in Hong Kong. At issue is the impasse over concessions in agriculture, the principle stumbling block for progress in negotiations to date. Caribbean Trade Ministers gathered in Hong Kong for this week’s meeting remain deeply concerned with the current state of affairs in global trade talks. More

UN Envoy urges bold action to tackle unfair trade rules
Hong Kong, 14 December 2005: Trade negotiators meeting in Hong Kong this week have an extraordinary opportunity to rewrite the rules of an unfair trading system that hampers the development of the poorest people of the world, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, the UN envoy for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, today said. More

13 December 2005

Annan urges world trade talks to take steps to boost exports of poor countries
Hong Kong, 13 December 2005 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged wealthy countries to set an unambiguous date to end “trade-distorting subsidies” and take other steps to give market access to developing countries, especially in agriculture, allowing trade to improve living conditions around the world. More

12 December 2005

EU Calls for Duty-Free Access to Poorest Countries
The U.S. should follow Japan and the European Union in giving quota- and tariff-free access to the world's poorest countries, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said. Japan on Dec. 9 pledged $10 billion over three years to promote trade with developing nations as a commitment to economic development before World Trade Organization talks that begin tomorrow in Hong Kong. More

Trade talks make development top priority
HONG KONG -- While trade ministers are less than hopeful of making any major breakthroughs in liberalizing agriculture during a key ministerial in Hong Kong this week, the United States, along with other key developed nations, is seeking to put forth a detailed package for least-developed countries. More

11 December 2005

Japan unveils aid package ahead of WTO
TOKYO: Japan will provide $10 billion in trade-related aid to least-developed countries over three years, the government said on Friday, in a bid to help infuse momentum into key global trade negotiations. In an aid package unveiled ahead of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong next week, Japan also said it would provide duty-free, quota-free market access for “essentially all products” originating from least-developed countries (LDCs). More

'Failure of WTO talks could cause instability'
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -World trade ministers head for the crucial WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong this week to the backdrop of warnings that failure to strike a trade deal that benefits the world's poorest nations could trigger new dangers to global peace and security. More

08 December 2005

Make or break time on subsidies
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, John Tsang, speaks on the prospects of a deal in the world trade talks

Bleak outlook for WTO deal
Peter Mandelson, the European Union’s trade commissioner, on Thursday painted a bleak picture of the prospects for next week’s World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong, accusing countries such as the US, Brazil and India of not pulling their weight.

06 December 2005

WTO eases rules on drugs for poor
After more than two years of haggling, World Trade Organisation members on Tuesday approved a change in WTO intellectual property rules to make it easier for poor countries to import cheap copies of life-saving drugs. More

05 December 2005

Caribbean Hopes Fade on More Aid for Trade
PORT OF SPAIN, Dec 5 (IPS) - A week before the start of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Hong Kong ministerial meeting, intended to reinvigorate floundering global trade talks, Caribbean countries say they are already losing confidence in the process. More

30 November 2005

Fog of numbers shrouds world trade talks
BEIJING (Reuters) - Freeing trade in goods could boost global incomes by $461 billion by 2015, says the World Bank.
Trade liberalization has cost sub-Saharan Africa $272 billion over the past 20 years, retorts the advocacy group Christian Aid.The debate over opening world markets, it seems, only goes to prove that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. More

25 November 2005

Caribbean: Sugar price cut unconscionable, devastating
CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – “The decision of the EU to proceed with such a hefty price cut is outrageous and unconscionable, and as though to add insult to injury EU beet sugar producers will now receive compensation
covering 64.2% (inclusive of an additional €2.2 billion) of the loss incurred by the price cut. In contrast, a meagre €40 million has been offered to ACP sugar producers as compensation.” This was the reaction of Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Trade and CARICOM Ministerial Spokesperson on Sugar Hon. Clement Rohee to yesterday’s decision by the EU to move ahead with a 36 percent price cut in respect of its sugar regime.

EU bolsters stance in trade talks with sugar subsidy cut
European Union agriculture ministers yesterday bolstered the EU's negotiating stance in world trade talks by agreeing the first significant cut in European sugar subsidies in almost four decades. More

24 November 2005

Minister calls on poor countries to unite for WTO negotiations
Brasilia – The Minister of Foreign Relations, Ambassador Celso Amorim, called on the different groups of developing nations to unite, in order to make possible the advancement of negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO). "The G20 message is for unity. I’m convinced that only by preserving our unity and strengthening our natural coalition, we will be able to ensure the accomplishment of the Doha Agenda," said Amorim during the African Union’s Ministerial Conference on the WTO Negotiations. The meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, ends this Thursday (24). More

Face-saving device
As things stand today, the prospects for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) does not look that promising since developed and developing member countries continue to maintain entrenched positions. Modali-ties for conducting negotiations on three core market access issues, namely agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services are not likely to be adopted by the Hong Kong Ministerial. After the Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy mentioned on 10 November that there may be a need for the WTO members to "recalibrate" their expectations for the Hong Kong, there is an"atmosphere of uncertainty" in Geneva. More

23 November 2002

Impasse in key WTO talks
World trade expert Professor Jim Rollo explains the current impasse between developing and developed nations over tariffs and farm subsidies ahead of crucial World Trade Organisation talks. More

14 November 2005

EU response in Doha Round found lacking
The European Union tabled a new proposal that would reduce tariffs on agricultural products by an average of 46 percent, rekindling hope that a new Doha Round trade agreement could be worked out in time for the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong Dec. 13-18. More

13 November 2005

U.S cotton offer skirts dumping controversy (pdf)