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News archives

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Study Shows that Resource-Conserving, Sustainable Agriculture Increases Yields
Abstract: Despite great recent progress, hunger and poverty remain widespread and agriculturally driven environmental damage is widely prevalent. The idea of agricultural sustainability centers on the need to develop technologies and practices that do not have adverse effects on environmental goo... Continued...

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Mexico: Conieco warns that US$2bn needed for short-term water investments
Financing of around 22bn pesos (US$2.06bn) is required in the short term to build potable water infrastructure and wastewater treatment plants in Mexico, the national board of industrial ecologists (Conieco) has warned, according to newspaper Milenio. So far, none of the candidates for next year... Continued...

WTO mini-Ministerial at Davos
After succeeding in reaching a deal at the Hong Kong Ministerial, WTO members, including India, are likely to have a mini-ministerial on the sidelines of World Economic Forum Summit at Davos next month. With April 30, 2005, the deadline for finalisation of modalities of the agreement not very far,... Continued...

USA: Public data show chemicals in tap water
WASHINGTON - Drinking water may have a lot more in it than just H20 and fluoride, according to an environmental group's analysis of records in 42 states. A survey by the Environmental Working Group released on Tuesday found 141 unregulated chemicals and an additional 119 for which the Environment... Continued...

Monday, December 19, 2005

Development Left Behind in WTO Agreement in Hong Kong
Deal Disguises Failure to Promote Development, Help Farmers and Workers Hong Kong – A watered down agreement announced late last night by the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the Hong Kong Ministerial reflects the struggles of a deeply flawed Doha Round that is far off-track, according to ... Continued...

USA: A big wave of mini-hydro projects
A big wave of mini-hydro projects Interest revives in hydropower on a small scale, sparked by the new energy bill and high fuel costs. When the surging Grasse River breached the old concrete-and-wood dam in Massena, N.Y., the dam, only a few feet high, collapsed slowly. Its failure injured nob... Continued...

Sunday, December 18, 2005

WTO Negotiators Pan Revised Proposals on Farm Aid
Trade negotiators, embroiled in their final hours of negotiations in Hong Kong, criticized a proposal calling for speedier cuts in payments to U.S. cotton farmers and dates for ending European Union farm-export aid. Yesterday's draft compromise by Director-General Pascal Lamy of the World Trade ... Continued...

WTO Talks And Kenya's Food Crisis
The sixth session of the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference ended today in Hong Kong with agriculture as its main agenda and trade - not aid - its primary theme. Kenya, a member of the WTO since 1995, was in attendance, heavily represented by several delegates including the General C... Continued...

WTO ministers sign up for compromise trade accord
Trade ministers signed up Sunday to a compromise deal clearing the way to a global trade deal in 2006, agreeing to cut farm trade export subsidies in eight years and provide special breaks for the poorest nations. A draft statement issued at World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks here approved a Eu... Continued...

NGOs say WTO statement betrays poor countries
Anti-globalization agencies Sunday condemned a draft statement set for adoption by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a betrayal of the poor, as world trade talks moved towards a close. The modest statement set to be adopted later Sunday allows agricultural export subsidies to be scrapped by 2... Continued...

WTO approves trade deal that ends farm export subsidies by 2013
World Trade Organization negotiators approved an agreement Sunday requiring wealthy nations to end farm export subsidies by 2013, a support system that poor nations say puts them at a competitive disadvantage. The agreement, which also makes modest reductions in other trade barriers, brings a bin... Continued...

Protesters march on last day of WTO meeting in Hong Kong
Thousands of anti-WTO protesters marched through the streets Sunday as Hong Kong tried to recover from a night of rioting that marked one of the city's worst spasms of violence in decades. The peaceful demonstrators chanted "Sink WTO" as trade ministers from around the globe wrapped up six days o... Continued...

Bitter Harvest: Alberta farmers are caught between rising costs and tumbling grain prices
Richard Bianchi was lucky enough to get a decent crop off this year, but the southern Alberta grain grower isn't feeling so lucky anymore. The settlement cheque he received for two B-train loads of malt barley, valued at a little more than $10,000 for just shy of 90 tonnes, is made out in the amo... Continued...

Hundreds arrested, injured at WTO
Despite about 900 arrests made by Hong Kong police, anti-globalization protesters on Sunday marched down one of city's main thoroughfares to gather outside police barricades at the site of the World Trade Organization talks on the last day of negotiations Several thousand protesters gathered at a... Continued...

Brazil and India accept new WTO draft text
Brazil and India on Sunday said they were satisfied with a World Trade Organization draft deal setting a 2013 deadline for ending farm export aid. In a sign the 149-nation meeting was close to agreement on a new trade liberalization package, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters ... Continued...

Ending Aid to Rich Farmers May Hurt the Poor Ones
BY now, it's almost a truism: the protectionist agricultural farm policies of the big, rich nations -- mainly the European Union, the United States and Japan -- are essentially barring poor countries from development. That belief is what led to much of the bickering last week between trade minis... Continued...

Snap-happy locals show whose side they're on
Whenever a protester was hit with pepper spray or fell back under the blows of police batons, Hong Kong supporters rushed to offer water, tissues and towels. They booed when protesters were sprayed with fire hoses. As emotions escalated, insults as well as bottles were hurled. "Stop. Stop.... Continued...

Text On Services Disappoints India
Indias expectations for pushing forward talks on services at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conclave here took a beating, going by the draft text on services released today. India is also faced with stiff opposition from the developing countries grouped under G-90, who have put u... Continued...

Two Farmers, Two Worlds, Two Outlooks on Tariffs and Global Trade
On a balmy afternoon early last week, Guillermo Symonds watched his team of 13 farmhands saddle their horses for the daily roundup of the 5,500 rust-and-white Hereford beef cattle on his 13,000-acre ranch in western Uruguay. Across the globe, on the same afternoon in the blustery Burgundy region... Continued...

WTO negotiators differ over whether they have trade deal
WTO negotiators disagreed Sunday over whether an overnight meeting had yielded a deal offering modest progress in dismantling global trade barriers. Delegates from developing countries emerged from the talks saying negotiators had reached agreement, though they said a final deal on an exact date ... Continued...

EU Contradicts Reports of WTO Trade Deal
Groggy WTO negotiators on Sunday disagreed over whether overnight meetings had yielded a deal offering modest progress in cutting global trade barriers, with India saying an agreement had been reached and the European Union insisting otherwise. The last-minute negotiations were focused on a date ... Continued...

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Ministers say mixed progress at WTO talks
HONG KONG, (UPI) -- Trade negotiators expressed modest optimism of reaching a consensus in the 11th hour of the Hong Kong World Trade Organization meeting Saturday. As ministers convened in a closed session, there was still hope to break the deadlock on a global trade pact that would help the poores... Continued...

Talks make little headway while protests turn violent
HONG KONG - World Trade Organization ministers reported some headway, though far below expectations, in a campaign to slash trade barriers and spur growth in poor countries at talks here that triggered a violent clash between police and protesters. Some delegates today began to speak of some adv... Continued...

Urgent Call to all La Via Campesina members organisations
Today, December 17, during the Peasant March called for by La Via Campesina and in the face of the probable breakdown of WTO negotiations, the Hong Kong police have violently responded to the march of thousands of peasants from all over the world. A peaceful peasant march, led by the Korean... Continued...

Talks at W.T.O. Meeting Yield Little Progress
HONG KONG, Dec. 17 - Trade ministers from around the world rebuffed American requests at a conference here on Saturday as police battled rioting South Korean rice farmers outside with tear gas, smoke grenades and fire hoses. Ministers produced a draft agreement at the World Trade Organization con... Continued...

WTO talks stagger into last day, deal elusive
HONG KONG - Exhausted negotiators struggled on Sunday to keep a global trade deal alive in a final day of talks as Hong Kong riot police and die-hard anti-globalization protesters went into a stand-off after violent clashes. As talks among the World Trade Organization's (WTO) nearly 150 members ... Continued...

Friday, December 16, 2005

NAFTA panel rejects appeal in wheat tariff case
A North American Free Trade Agreement panel has rejected a North Dakota Wheat Commission appeal over Canadian spring wheat imports, clearing the way for the U.S. government to lift tariffs on grain flowing south across the border. ''We've probably exhausted our options,'' Jim Peterson, the commis... Continued...

Kenya Wins Crucial 'Green Room' Seat At WTO
Kenya made a diplomatic breakthrough at the World Trade Organisation talks after its delegation was invited to a club of less than 35 key rich countries and a few developing countries meet to battle it out for WTO deals. "This is a triumph for Kenya since we will be able to negotiate from within,... Continued...

Development Must Be Central to Doha - EU
THE European Union (EU) has made several proposals that would ensure that the world realises developmental and global gains at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Agenda round under way in Hong Kong. It said in its papers "Completing the Doha Development Agenda" and "Pushing ahead... Continued...

Senegal; Frozen Chicken Imports Threaten Local Farmers' Livelihoods
Frozen chicken legs may seem an unlikely enemy, but Lamine Toure has seen the foreign imports force scores of his fellow poultry farmers to shut up shop and is worried he might be the next victim. The poultry parts -- unwanted by Europe and America where consumers often prefer the breast meat -- ... Continued...

Korean anti-WTO protesters turn anger on US consulate
Militant South Korean anti-globalisation protesters sprayed the United States consulate in Hong Kong with graffiti Friday in their latest feisty demonstration against WTO trade talks here. About 100 protesters, mainly farmers, marched on the downtown consulate and sprayed their rallying cry, "Dow... Continued...

WTO talks in trouble; EU trade chief says negotiations "going backwards"
Global trade talks were sliding closer to a failure Friday that could damage the credibility of the World Trade Organization. With only two days left in the meeting, the European Union's lead representative said the negotiations were "going backwards." Delegates from the WTO's 149 member nations ... Continued...

U.S. officials frustrated that EU holding WTO talks "hostage"
Senior U.S. trade officials voiced frustration Friday at the lack of progress in WTO talks, blaming the European Union for holding hostage a trade liberalization deal by refusing to cut farm tariffs. With talks scheduled to end Sunday, U.S. trade envoys described a sense of urgency among cranky a... Continued...

US plans to double 'aid for trade' to poor economies by 2010
Washington aims to offer $2.7 billion in grants annually by 2010 to help poor countries build capacity to engage in global trade, a US State Department fact sheet quoted US Trade Representative Rob Portman as saying. Mr. Portman announced the US plan to double its trade assistance from $1.3 bill... Continued...

Wheat giant 'to lose monopoly'
TRADE Minister Mark Vaile has warned Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd it is likely to face competition no matter what happens at this week's World Trade Organisation talks. Mr Vaile said his gut feeling was that AWB would lose the ability to effectively veto the export of bulk quantit... Continued...

Some E.U. states mulling over leaving WTO talks, says France
A number of European Union states have raised the possibility of leaving current World Trade Organization talks mid-way, France's farm minister Dominique Bussereau said Friday. Asked if any E.U. state was pressing the bloc's trade chief Peter Mandelson to abandon the WTO talks, Bussereau - whose ... Continued...

Corn is latest battleground in U.S.-Canada trade war
Canada has fired the first shot in a trade war with the United States over corn. The action comes during an election campaign that has seen Prime Minister Paul Martin engage in a war of words with the U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, over trade issues. In a ruling issued by the Canad... Continued...

EU Officials Criticize U.S. Focus On Agriculture In Hong Kong
HONG KONG -- Senior European Union officials today criticized U.S. tactics in the Doha negotiations, charging the U.S. focus on agriculture to the exclusion of other issues risked an unbalanced outcome with fewer gains in industrial market access and services. “The risk is they’ll be s... Continued...

Lamy Sets Morning Deadline For Amendments To Declaration Text
HONG KONG -- World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy has set a 6 a.m. Dec. 17 deadline for members to offer proposals for amending a Hong Kong ministerial declaration to further define the goals for the Doha round. In advance of this deadline, Lamy has scheduled a green r... Continued...

CAP is not to be blamed if talks fail
European agriculture must not take the blame if world trade talks in Hong Kong fail to get an agreement on liberalising markets under the Doha Development Round. Briefing journalists on Monday (12 December) before flying out to Hong Kong, NFU president Tim Bennett insisted the EU had already made... Continued...

WTO trade deadlock eases
There was limited progress yesterday in breaking the trade talks deadlock between the 149-member World Trade Organisation, three days after the sixth ministerial meeting began in Hong Kong, reports Keith Wallis in Hong Kong . Australian trade minister Mark Vaile said some progress had been made i... Continued...

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Developing Countries Want Bread, Not Crumbs
WHATEVER face-saving measures are taken, the Hong Kong meeting in mid-December to wrap up the development round of world trade talks will almost surely fail the only test that matters: whether the agreement promotes poorest countries' development. Cynics will say the advanced countries, in the tr... Continued...

South Africa: Water utility initiates demand-management project
An initiative to educate Gauteng communities in saving water will hopefully result in future water augmentation projects being pushed back several years, Rand Water CEO Dr Simo Lushaba said yesterday. Lushaba was addressing a media briefing following on from a Gauteng South African Local Governme... Continued...

French farmers' incomes fall 10.0 percent in 2005: official study
The income of French farmers has fallen by 10.0 percent in 2005, a study by the French agriculture ministry showed on Thursday just as France is under pressure on several fronts to agree to cuts in agricultural subsidies. The sharp fall in earnings for France's farmers was most acutely felt in wi... Continued...

Top U.S. trade envoy says WTO deal would ease U.S. trade deficit
A sweeping global trade deal would reduce the bulging U.S. trade deficit, America's top trade official said Thursday, shrugging off suggestions that the growing trade gap would undermine his efforts to negotiate at the WTO talks this week. "Yes, there's a trade deficit," U.S. Trade Representative... Continued...

Poor nations close ranks as U.S-EU bickering overshadows WTO talks
Developing countries were closing ranks Thursday to push their agenda at this week's global trade talks as the U.S. and the European Union traded charges with time running out to broker a global trade deal that could lift millions out of poverty. Top trade officials from more than 110 poor countr... Continued...

Rice for Japan, champagne for France, "sensitive" products stymie progress at trade talks
For Japan, it's rice. For France, it's champagne and Roquefort cheese, among others. When it comes to free trade, almost every country has its own sacred cows, traditional products they insist on protecting from outside competition. Trade talks in Hong Kong this week are focusing on proposals to... Continued...

Anti-WTO Protesters March Against WTO
Anti-WTO protesters launched a consulate-hopping street march Thursday in Hong Kong, stopping at several foreign offices to tell officials that free trade is hurting workers in developing countries. The peaceful demonstration included dozens of people - mostly garment workers and maids - from the... Continued...

U.S. officials say pressure is building to break WTO deadlock
U.S. officials said Thursday that a deadlock stalling this week's world trade talks in Hong Kong would only end when the EU agrees to deeper cuts to farm tariffs. The Americans added that pressure was building for negotiators at the World Trade Organization meeting to strike a deal that would lif... Continued...

US vetoes deal to help poor
A key part of the global trade talks looked doomed to failure yesterday, as the second day of negotiations in Hong Kong descended into acrimony. Europe's five-point plan to help the world's poorest countries to boost their trade has been blocked by the US. The proposal was designed as a side d... Continued...

Aid for Trade Package Linked to Concessions That Would Worsen Conditions for Many Poor Countries
The following are statements on the United States December 14 "aid for trade" pro posal, taken from a news conference organized by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Focus on the Global South and Public Citizen: Hon. Love Mtesa, Zambian Ambassador: Economic liberalization is... Continued...

Asian People Speaks Out About The Negative Impacts Of WTO
"Say no to WTO" was the consensus reached by Asian grassroots activists who gathered this morning at Victoria Park in Hong Kong to share their experiences of unfair trade policies imposed by rich nations. Under the banner of Asian People's Caravan for Justice and Sovereignty 2005, the collective dem... Continued...

E.U. and North American Farmers Call WTO a Failure
Farmer leaders from the European Union, the United States and Canada denounced their negotiators’ trade proposals at a press conference this morning in Hong Kong. They declared trade liberalization and the WTO a proven failure for farmers and rural communities all over the world. Leaders fr... Continued...

India, Brazil Tie Biodiversity Negotiations To Doha Development Package
Hong Kong - At the World Trade Organization ministerial here, India has proposed the launch of negotiations on the disclosure of origin of material in patent applications, and says that if this issue is not addressed, there will be no development package in the outcome of the current round of trade ... Continued...

Demonstrators call for removal of trade barriers
Hong Kong - The Freedom to Trade (F2T) coalition staged a peaceful demonstration this afternoon calling for governments to remove barriers to trade throughout the world. The demonstration involved members of the F2T breaking chains and tearing down walls, representing the many barriers to trade impo... Continued...

Vows of New Aid to the Poor Leave the Poor Unimpressed
HONG KONG, Dec. 14 - The United States, the European Union and Japan have taken turns this week at the World Trade Organization ministerial conference promoting plans to provide billions in foreign aid and eliminate trade barriers on exports from the world's poorest countries. But ministers from... Continued...

Poor nations leery of U.S. "aid for trade"
When U.S. and European delegates at the global trade talks here say they're working hard to help the poorest countries climb the ladder of wealth, it's hard to take them at their word. The World Trade Organization bargaining table, after all, is where nations fight for every scrap of advantage — ... Continued...

Hong Kong delegate count reveals massive developed country advantage in negotiations
Calculations by UK based campaigners, the World Development Movement (WDM) today (14 December) revealed that the EU has a record breaking 832 people in its delegation at the WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong. WDM says that the totals calculated for rich and poor country delegations, just as in pr... Continued...

Poor countries flex muscles at WTO talks
HONG KONG (AFP) - Global trade talks were confronted with growing pressure from poorer countries, with African cotton producers and Latin American banana exporters leading the charge for fairer treatment. World Trade Organization ministers held a third day of talks in Hong Kong following sharp ... Continued...

Trade Bits: Special WTO Ministerial Meeting Edition
WTO CONVENES: Thousands of citizens from around the world converged in Hong Kong Tuesday to send a message to WTO negotiators in their Ministerial meeting that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” Although many observers have low expectations for the talks, labor, family farm, environmental, and hu... Continued...

On Tap at the WTO: Private Water
The focus of the Hong Kong round for rich western nations is to squeeze every drop of money they can by privatizing public services. When it comes to water systems, that can be deadly. Hong Kong -- Activists gathered here say that no issue highlights the tension between the human values they a... Continued...

La Via Campesina Women's Peasant Forum In Hong Kong Declaration
Today we have organized a women’s peasant forum during the WTO ministerial meeting to share our experiences and find solutions to our problems. We are here with the power and the will to struggle to stop the ministerial meeting. Women are responsible for feeding their families and protecti... Continued...

U.S. Offers Concessions to African Farmers
HONG KONG (AP) - The U.S. trade chief Rob Portman said Thursday that Washington is willing to provide duty and quota-free access for cotton produced in West Africa, but was immediately criticized by the EU and campaign groups for offering the wrong solution to African producers' needs. Speaking a... Continued...

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Confédération Paysanne and its allies ask for a moratorium on GMOs
Hong Kong--Today, Confederation paysanne, Friends of the Earth international, Greenpeace, ATTAC, Oakland Institute, and IATP handed over a petition asking the WTO to respect the European choice to have a moratorium on GMOs. This petition was signed by 135.000 citizens and is backed by 165 ... Continued...

WTO GM Trade War - Has Europe Lost The Case?
The Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation has today (Weds) refused to confirm rumours that Europe has lost the transatlantic trade dispute on genetically modified (GM) foods. One of the issues at stake is whether European countries can continue to maintain national bans on the ... Continued...

New Jersey Sues Three Companies for Passaic River Dioxin Pollution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 14, 2005 NEW JERSEY SUES THREE COMPANIES FOR DISCHARGING AND DELAYING CLEANUP OF HIGHLY TOXIC DIOXIN IN THE LOWER PASSAIC RIVER Directs Companies to Fund Cleanup Plan for Most Concentrated Areas of Dioxin Contamination in the River (05/134) TRENTON -- Depar... Continued...

WTO GM Trade War - Has Europe Lost The Case?
The Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organisation has today (Weds) refused to confirm rumours that Europe has lost the transatlantic trade dispute on genetically modified (GM) foods. One of the issues at stake is whether European countries can continue to maintain national bans on the impo... Continued...

Chicago to Host New Water Conservation Organization
CHICAGO, Illinois, December 14, 2005 (ENS) - The headquarters of a new water conservation organization will be located in Chicago, federal and city officials announced Monday. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Executive Director o... Continued...

WTO Talks Killing Ghanaian Rice
A small group of farmers heaves bulging, fifty-pound sacks of rice and piles them one on top of the other. It is a sweltering 45 degrees, and sweat drips from their faces, and drenches their clothes. They stack the blue and white bags, until they nearly reach the ceiling of the gigantic warehouse... Continued...

US subsidies only part of African cotton problem
HONG KONG- US government subsidies to its cotton farmers are only part of the problems faced by African producers, US Trade Representative Rob Portman said, linking the abolition of this aid to a general agreement on trade. In front of all 149 member countries of the World Trade Organisation curr... Continued...

Latin Americans slam EU banana policy at WTO conference
Latin American nations on Wednesday called on a World Trade Organisation conference to condemn the European Union's new tariff plan for bananas, saying it flies in the face of the rules of global commerce. Mario Jimenez, Honduras' agriculture minister, also said it was hard to see how the WTO's D... Continued...

Japan cannot compromise on rice
Japan said Wednesday it cannot compromise on market access in sensitive product areas, including rice, although there is some room for movement on other aspects of farm trade. "There are areas that we cannot offer concessions on. That is, sensitive products ... and it includes rice," Japanese... Continued...

US seeks new WTO meeting early next year if no Hong Kong accord
The World Trade Organisation must agree to convene again early next year if WTO ministers meeting here this week fail to break a deadlock holding up a new trade pact, US Trade Representative Rob Portman said Wednesday. In his address to a WTO plenary session, Portman said members "cannot afford t... Continued...

Failure better than compromise: NGO message at WTO
Poor countries should let World Trade Organisation talks fail rather than sign a deal that jeopardises their future, major non governmental organisations (NGOs) at the Hong Kong conference say. Often deeply divided about the best way to reform global trade, NGOs contacted by AFP unanimously urged... Continued...

G-20, G-33 Seek Concrete Provisions For Special Products
The G-20 and G-33 group of developing countries on Tuesday put up a united front at the WTO Ministerial Conference here and made it clear that no global trade deal could be possible without reaching an agreement on ending farm subsidies. They also demanded provisions for Special Products and Spec... Continued...

U.S., EU trade barbs as WTO impasse over farm trade persists
The United States and European Union traded criticism at the World Trade Organization meeting Wednesday even as they urged fellow delegates to break a deadlock in global trade liberalization talks. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said the negotiations would not move unless the EU further op... Continued...

India warns WTO members against drifting from trade concerns of developing countries
India's trade minister on Wednesday warned member nations of the World Trade Organization against backtracking on the pledge they made four years ago - to reform the global trading system to the benefit of the poor. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath accused wealthy nations of drifting from the origina... Continued...

From anti-war remarks at Oscars to WTO protests, Mexican actor emerging as new actor-activist
Gael Garcia Bernal spoke out against the war in Iraq while presenting an award at the Oscars two years ago. This week, the Mexican actor joined the aid group Oxfam's campaign for fair trade at the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong. The 27-year-old star of films like "The Motorcycle Di... Continued...

Mandelson rounds on 'fake' US food aid
The opening day of the high-profile trade summit in Hong Kong got off to a disastrous start yesterday. A bitter war of words broke out between Europe, the US and the United Nations, and demonstrators wrought havoc inside and outside the convention centre. Peter Mandelson, the EU's trade chief, tr... Continued...

Farmers Take to the Water in WTO Protest
Led by angry South Korean farmers, thousands of demonstrators Tuesday marched in the streets here, skirmishing with riot police who prevented them from walking -- or swimming -- to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center to protest the World Trade Organization's ministerial talks. On a coo... Continued...

Global confrontation; World Trade Organization meeting galvanizes protesters
While trade negotiators haggled on the opening day of the World Trade Organization conference on Tuesday, a small group of protesters clashed with police. Led by militant South Korean farmers, some protesters confronted police in a planned march some distance away from the convention center in Wa... Continued...

Why farming has set the agenda...at the expense of everything else
Agriculture may be getting most of the headlines, but it's a relatively small contributor to bottom lines. While farm products are a mainstay of developing economies, they account for less than 10 per cent of the worldwide trade in goods, according to World Bank figures. Little wonder then the fr... Continued...

Pascal Lamy's WTO Web log
Pascal Lamy, the French Socialist who was the European Union's Trade Commissioner and now holds the hot seat as secretary general of the World Trade Organization at this week's Hong Kong summit, is writing a daily diary as a Web long, which UPI republishes here. "Hi or Nei Ho as they say here in ... Continued...

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Support Growing For Anti-Wto Hunger-Striking 'Rice-Bomber'
A coalition of social and academic groups announced Tuesday they will launch a "save Taiwan's agriculture" campaign in Taipei Dec. 16-17 in support of "rice-bomber" Yang Ju-men who began a six-day hunger strike earlier in the day in a detention center in connection with a World Trade Organizatio... Continued...

Mandelson rules out concessions
The European trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, warned that there would be no fresh concessions to unblock the logjam in world trade talks on the eve of negotiations poised to set rich countries against poor. As 6,000 delegates gathered for the start of the World Trade Organisation's six-daymee... Continued...

The Development Package: Deceptive and Dangerous
Statement at Press Conference of Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South, Hong Kong, Dec. 13, 2005* With the negotiations stalemated in the key areas, the WTO Secretariat and the big trade powers are using the scheme of a “development package” to pass off the current ministerial conference as... Continued...

Grains of Gold: Wopnderful Drought Proofing Method From Karnataka, India.
Sand mulching or the technique of spreading a layer of sand on fields to retain water has given farmers a good crop even during times of drought. Delighted farmers tell Shree Padre how because of this simple, affordable and effective method, sand for them has now become...... Grains of Gold Tw... Continued...

WTO MEETING Thousands stage protests as Hong Kong talks get underway
HONG KONG - Thousands of anti-globalisation activists marched through Hong Kong today watched by a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of violence that has rocked previous WTO meetings. Demonstrators from international unions, non-government organisations and political parties ch... Continued...

WTO Opening Ceremony Told: "Wto Kills Peasants'
Over forty unannounced protestors from across the world joined together inside the opening ceremony of the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong to protest at the WTO's ongoing drive towards liberalisation. "We have seen ten years of deceit under the WTO. We are protesting because we cannot continue to... Continued...

China fall shorts on WTO compliance, US trade report says
China has yet to fully embrace World Trade Organisation principles, falling well short on transparency in key economic sectors and intellectual property rights violations, a US trade report said Wednesday. The annual report to Congress underscored the concern over Beijing's state intervention in ... Continued...

Philippine Farmers, Fisherfolk Oppose WTO Trade Talks
A broad coalition of farmers, fisherfolk and civil society organizations have expressed their opposition to the current negotiations for new multilateral trade deals under the World Trade Organization (WTO), urging the Philippine government led by its chief negotiator Trade Secretary Peter Favila to... Continued...

Food at center of world trade battle
It all seems to be boiling down to a food fight. By dollar value, farming account for only a small slice of the world economic pie, but its critical role in the lives of billions of people has thrust it to the fore of WTO talks being held in Hong Kong this week, where an impasse over the issue th... Continued...

WTO Protesters Try to Break Roadblock
Several dozen protesters struck security forces with bamboo sticks and tried to ram through a police roadblock Tuesday as the World Trade Organization meeting opened in Hong Kong. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The confrontation occurred after several thousand protesters marched thr... Continued...

The WTO's Shaky Common Ground
By just about anyone's reckoning, the Dec. 13-18 World Trade Organization conference in Hong Kong is unlikely to yield much progress. The bar on expectations has been lowered so much that some people believe just getting through the week without the whole process grinding to a halt will be a major a... Continued...

Anti-WTO activists take the plunge
People from all around the world have gathered in Hong Kong to protest against policies of the World Trade Organization. But just what drives these people to make such a big commitment? Dominic, 25, an applied chemistry student from Dhaka, Bangladesh: We have come here to express Bangladesh so... Continued...

US cotton producers join European farmers in fight for subsidies
AS THOUSANDS of protesters, politicians and press massed in Hong Kong for today's world trade talks, two dark clouds loomed on the horizon. Europe again refused to cut the subsidies it pays its farmers, while in the United States, the cotton industry insisted that it should not be singled out for... Continued...

Supply management at risk under WTO negotiations
The future of supply management is at stake heading into this week's meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong. Despite reassurances from all four national political parties, and the stated intentions of Canadian negotiators, there are deep concerns that supply management may be sacrif... Continued...

This week's global trade talks considered doomed
WASHINGTON - Canada and the other major trading nations are in Hong Kong this week for what is widely seen as a doomed attempt to end billions of dollars in global farm subsidies. Talks among the 149 countries in the World Trade Organization start today in the so-called Doha Round of negotiation... Continued...

'Under WTO rules, Kenya is forced to sell its coffee beans at 12 US cents a kilo.
For the protesters who plan to take to Hong Kong's streets, the agreements under negotiation at the WTO are an anathema. The free trade philosophy that underpins the WTO is supposed to deliver benefits to all. But, when it is put into practice, the trading system becomes skewed in favour of develope... Continued...

Caught up in the food chain: the case of the Thai rice farmer
To most outsiders, 64-year-old Sangvane Euntakat has an enviable life in rural Thailand: he has a piece of land of about 1.6 hectares in Khon Kaen province in the northeast of the country where he has grown rice for himself and for the market for more than 40 years. His annual production is about 10... Continued...

Action woman
ELIZABETH TANG Yin-ngor is an experienced general on the protest front: the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions chief executive has been a full-time unionist for the past 15 years. But her WTO mission puts all previous demonstrations in the shade. "These are by far the biggest protests I have... Continued...

WTO talks open amid food aid tension
Hong Kong - A transatlantic row on food aid boiled over and anti-globalisation protesters clashed with police on Tuesday as troubled trade talks got under way in Hong Kong. Deadlocked in negotiations for a free trade accord because of differences over cutting subsidies and import tariffs, World T... Continued...

All set for WTO Hong Kong conference
Hong Kong: The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 6th Ministerial Conference is beginning here from Tuesday. All arrangements for the conference have been completed. Around 20,000 workers of NGOs and other social organizations have reached Hong Kong to mobilize the masses against the proposals for... Continued...

Petition By 18m Gets Star Treatment
A group of international celebrities presented WTO director general Pascal Lamy with a petition signed by nearly 18 million people at an event for Oxfam, the international hunger advocacy group, a day before the WTO opens for business. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, African singer Angelique Ki... Continued...

Trade Unionists Working Within the WTO
Six years ago, trade unionists led 40,000 protesters out onto Seattle's streets, confronting tear-gas-wielding riot police and torpedoing World Trade Organization talks. As the WTO reconvenes Tuesday in Hong Kong, some of the same trade unionists are fighting again -- but this time for the trade... Continued...

Patched-up, even procedural deal will be worse than failure
Geneva, 12 Dec - As 149 member-countries of the WTO gather at Hong Kong for the sixth Ministerial conference, unless developing countries stand firm (over the next few days) against pressures - from the WTO leaders, the US-EC-Japan and their transnational corporate lobbies as well as their media - t... Continued...

Monday, December 12, 2005

Bush urged to use WTO to break up OPEC oil cartel
WASHINGTON - A U.S. senator on Monday urged President George W. Bush to get tough with OPEC after the cartel threatened to cut its crude oil production next year if oil prices fall. At its meeting in Kuwait Monday, ministers with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said they would t... Continued...

Asian Trade Talks Falter on Rice, Naked Dolls Before WTO Summit
Southeast Asian leaders are meeting this week to bolster regional cooperation as moves to boost economic ties with neighbors falter over items such as rice and dolls, and a round of world trade talks looks set to collapse. Progress on free trade talks between the 10-member Association of Southea... Continued...

Free Trade Endangers Jobs Worldwide
At a press conference in Vienna, the Brazilian CUT-unionist Gonzalo Berron warned of a further liberalization of world trade. In threshold countries like Brazil, trade liberalization will only benefit a minority and produce a great majority of losers as Mexico’s experiences in NAFTA showed. “Brazil’... Continued...

My Fair Lady - Fashion, Fair Trade and the Fate of Nations
Summer Rayne Oakes (www.summerrayne.net) will be the lead model for the Fair Trade Symposium (www.fairtradeexpo.org) to be held in Hong Kong during the WTO Ministerial "Human rights at work, environment, and human health, particularly in developing or least developed countries have been overshadowed... Continued...

French protester Bové freed for WTO meeting
HONG KONG Big Mac lovers in Hong Kong, beware: An antiglobalization protester best known for attacking McDonald's restaurants in France has been allowed into the territory, and even granted a security pass to the World Trade Organization ministerial conference that starts here on Tuesday. The m... Continued...

South Africa; Intellectual Property Push in Hong Kong
Local researchers have joined their British, Asian, and Latin American colleagues in urging delegates to next week's World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong to amend the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement to strengthen protection for developing countries' indige... Continued...

Oxfam delivers petition with 17.8 mln signatures ahead of WTO talks
HONG KONG - International aid organization Oxfam has delivered a petition with 17.8 mln signatures to WTO director general Pascal Lamy, demanding fair trade on the eve of ministerial talks in Hong Kong, Agence France-Presse reported. Mexican film star Gael Garcia Bernal, African songstress Angel... Continued...

Trade Talks Now Expected to Focus on Exports of Poorest Nations
Recognizing that little progress can be expected on intractable issues like farm subsidies, officials at global trade talks scheduled to begin here on Tuesday now appear likely to focus heavily on increasing exports from the world's poorest countries. Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Tr... Continued...

WTO rules against Mexico in U.S. rice antidumping case
Not all of the news coming out of the World Trade Organization is negative for U.S. growers. A WTO Appellate Body has ruled in favor of the United States in its challenge to Mexico's antidumping duties on U.S. long grain white rice. In a report issued Nov. 29, the Appellate Body upheld an earlier... Continued...

Youth for fair trade
Forty young PEOPLE from around the world gathered in Hong Kong last week to discuss their views on world trade justice. They were drawn here as officials from six countries prepared for the sixth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which starts tomorrow. The three-day... Continued...

Cultivating the Biobased Economy
It is unlikely that one would identify the automobile, long a pariah in the sustainability movement, as a pioneer in the emerging environmental landscape of bio-engineered products. But history is fond of playing practical jokes and di Lampedusa's admonition that "those who forget the past are bound... Continued...

Wal-Mart Hopes WTO Will Help It Open a Door
Big retailers will seek to alter a services pact. Local officials fear a loss of power to limit firms. By Times Staff Writer December 12, 2005 Union leaders, politicians and anti-globalization activists have used the courts and zoning laws to keep big-box stores like Wal-Mart out of their nei... Continued...

China's WTO membership ignoring workers' rights: labour activists
China's WTO membership has brought negligible benefits to its massive work force, as the nation's drive towards economic prosperity has come at the expense of its workers, a group of Asian-based labour groups said Monday. "China is willing to make concessions to (WTO) trade partners because its a... Continued...

French militant farmer Bove granted entry to Hong Kong for WTO talks
French militant farmer Jose Bove has been allowed into Hong Kong on the eve of World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial talks after being briefly detained at the airport, French officials said Monday. "We asked the consul general to intervene... so that Jose Bove could be present in Hong Kong,"... Continued...

India Vows To Protect Farmers In WTO Deals
India's Cabinet Committee on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday armed Commerce Minister Kamal Nath with powers to negotiate at the WTO forum in Hong Kong next week and protect the interest of 650 million Indian farmers. The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister... Continued...

German EcoMin: No need for new EU offer at WTO summit this week
German Economics Minister Michael Glos said Monday that the EU need not make any new offers at the World Trade Organization summit this week in Hong Kong. "There's currently no need at all for us to talk about making any further advances as long as others don't keep up with us," Glos told reporte... Continued...

Grim outlook on eve of WTO gathering as negotiators strive to nudge stalled talks forward
Trade negotiators gathered for World Trade Organization talks in Hong Kong conceded Monday that prospects for progress toward a global free trade treaty were bleak, with rich countries and the developing world still at odds over agricultural trade. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson bluntly sa... Continued...

A look at the WTO meeting in Hong Kong
WHAT: Founded in 1995 and based in Geneva, the World Trade Organization creates the laws that govern international trade between its members and helps them settle trade disputes. The WTO's main goal is to promote free trade, which it says brings economic prosperity. WHO: Trade ministers and other... Continued...

Nobel laureate Stiglitz urges rich countries to salvage WTO talks, promote development
Wealthy nations must abandon their "double standard" and commit to wiping out farm subsidies and other trade barriers if it wants developing countries to stick with world trade talks, Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz said Monday. Developing countries, especially democracies, cannot sign o... Continued...

Relief group says WTO rules for drug patents hurt AIDS patients in China
Chinese AIDS patients lack appropriate drugs because the World Trade Organization's patent rules prevent China from making the medicine, the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said Monday. The criticism came despite the WTO's move last week to improve access to cheaper medicine in developi... Continued...

Police brace for 10,000 anti-globalisation protesters
HONG Kong authorities are bracing for a wave of anti-globalisation rallies when protesters take to the streets during this week's World Trade Organisation meeting. Since 1998, WTO ministerial meetings have become a magnet for ever-growing protests against globalisation. Hong Kong is unlikely ... Continued...

Equiterre at WTO Meeting in Hong Kong
In view of the World Trade Organization's inability to improve the situation of small farmers in the South, Equiterre will propose to the countries attending the WTO Meeting that they start promoting fair trade now. Equiterre will be in Hong Kong from December 13 to 16, 2005 to attend the trade nego... Continued...

World Trade Talks Rest On Knife Edge
THERE are few topics quite like globalisation to get people infuriated and confused in equal measure. For some, it is the movement that has boosted economies across the world and promises to rescue debt-ridden developing nations. For others, it represents all that is wrong with the modern world -... Continued...

Hong Kong braces itself for tough talks and violence at WTO talks
Hong Kong Monday mounted the city's biggest security operation since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 as thousands of delegates and protestors poured in for the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting. Nine thousand police have been mobilized as 6,000 delegates from the 148 member s... Continued...

We will pay for cheap bananas with prisons, fear and fragmentation
The Guardian (London) As hurricanes barrelled through the alphabet this year, pounding Anthony Barnett's two acres of banana fields in St Thomas, Jamaica, his healthy respect for the forces of nature endured. But as the World Trade Organisation meets in Hong Kong this week, it is the deliberate d... Continued...

People Tree Proves The Power Of Fair Trade Fashion At Wto Meeting
Fair Trade and ecological fashion label People Tree will prove the success of Fair Trade fashion to the delegates of the 6th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong this week. People Tree's pioneering fashion show, on 14th December, is one of the main events of the three-day Fair T... Continued...

Heated debate on trade polarizes U.S. politics
WASHINGTON At a time when the World Trade Organization is hard pressed to come up with a consensus on new global trading rules, the political divisions in the United States over trade are deepening. On one side are proponents of increasing the volume of trade to keep up the pace of globalizatio... Continued...

Christian Aid warns of World Trade Organisation walk out
Christian Aid is today urging poor countries to prepare for a walk out of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Hong Kong next week unless the European Union executes a dramatic change in its aggressive liberalising trade policies. According to leaked documents obtained by Christian Aid, t... Continued...

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Protest Groups Want No Deal From Hong Kong Trade Talks
Section: Regional News - As many as 10,000 protesters are expected to come to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) ministerial conference in Hong Kong next week. No deal is better than a bad deal, an anti-WTO video sums up what many protest groups hope will be the outcome of the World Trade Organ... Continued...

WTO to meet in Hong Kong with little hope of success
Trade ministers will meet this week in Hong Kong for talks on a global trade liberalization deal, but deadlock over the key issue of farm subsidies has left little hope of significant progress. Expectations for the biennial World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting have been progressivel... Continued...

Militant Korean farmers show cheerful side at Hong Kong WTO protest
They arrived with a fearsome reputation for protest violence but South Korea's notoriously militant farmers showed a friendlier side at an anti-globalisation rally in Hong Kong Sunday, greeting onlookers in the local Cantonese dialect. A handful of members of the radical Korean Peasants League (K... Continued...

What is the WTO?
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established in January 1995 with the aim of helping global commerce flow as freely and fairly as possible and overseeing agreed rules. -- Based in Geneva, the WTO has 149 members, of whom about three quarters are developing countries. Saudi Arabia joined on ... Continued...

Key dates in the history of WTO negotiations
Key dates in the decade-long history of the World Trade Organisation: -- January 1995: The WTO replaces the looser General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in the wake of World War II to try to stop a repeat of the trade wars that fed that conflict. Moves to form the WTO b... Continued...

Thousands march in first anti-globalization protest before WTO summit in Hong Kong
About 4,000 anti-globalization activists - some carrying a giant spider and others wheeling statues of emaciated people - marched Sunday in the first mass protest against the World Trade Organization's summit in Hong Kong. The 149-member WTO, which set rules for global commerce, is a champion of ... Continued...

Their Patents or Your Life
Have you heard about that bird flu? The threatened pandemic, should it occur, will kill in a worst-case scenario 150 million people, including 7 million Americans. The resulting mountain of skulls would dwarf those piled up in all the wars of the 20th Century. Yes, it's scary stuff. People who re... Continued...

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Wto: Free Trade Or Fair Trade? Two Economies, Two Views
The international fair trade movement is pushing for new rules to protect marginalized producers. But first, it is specifying what fair trade is -- and what it is not. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick spoke of the need for "fair trade" on his visit to China in October. "The Chinese ec... Continued...

New technology planned to bring water from under Missouri River
BISMARCK, N.D. - A plan to draw water from beneath the Missouri River for a thirsty Burleigh County would be among the first along the longest U.S. river and one of only a handful such projects in the nation. Called angled wells, the system would use the Big Muddy's sand and rock riverbed to help... Continued...

Friday, December 9, 2005

Making the Links: The Great Unemployment Round
Event Notice: NGO Centre at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, December 15, 12.00 Organised by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Polaris Institute ‘After ten years of the WTO, unemployment has climbed around the world. There has been an increase in di... Continued...

Advisory: Tufts researchers in Hong Kong for WTO meetings
Kevin P. Gallagher and Timothy A. Wise, from Tufts’ Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE), will be attending the WTO meetings in Hong Kong December 13-18 to present the institute’s research on the social, economic, and environmental impacts of trade liberalization. They will present t... Continued...

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Great Lakes headed for 'ecological collapse'
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — As wetlands disappear and shorelines are degraded, the Great Lakes are losing their ability to cope with environmental stress and ward off a catastrophic breakdown, scientists said Thursday. "The immune system of the Great Lakes is weakened and it needs to be restored to pr... Continued...

India seen as key player to farm deal at WTO talks - analysts
India is seen as a key player to win over for a global deal to free up agricultural trade at next week's World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Hong Kong, analysts said. India, where two thirds of the population live off farming, could both gain and lose heavily from a international agreement to... Continued...

Upshot; The New US-EU Game
Perhaps you will begin to understand why some people want to stop the upcoming WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong, if you realized how Machiavellian everyone is, out for their skin, obsessed with positioning, giving so little yet receiving so much, exploiting every loophole and gray area. This ... Continued...

EU says governments would reject further farm offer
EU trade chief Peter Mandelson says he would lose the support of national governments if he were to make a new farm trade offer at WTO talks next week since not enough other topics are under discussion. The EU is willing to explain further the offer it made to cut agricultural tariffs in October,... Continued...

Human rights, not "trade justice":Burkina Faso - One of the world's poorest countries is about to fight its corner against the big boys
"We are slaves," says Tahere Niampa, with a fleck of cotton balancing on his lip. "The price of cotton is too low. We don't know what to do." Niampa, 65, has been farming cotton in Burkina Faso, West Africa, since he was a boy. Last year he made the equivalent of roughly US$700, enough to feed hi... Continued...

Human rights, not "trade justice"
"We are slaves," says Tahere Niampa, with a fleck of cotton balancing on his lip. "The price of cotton is too low. We don't know what to do." Niampa, 65, has been farming cotton in Burkina Faso, West Africa, since he was a boy. Last year he made the equivalent of roughly US$700, enough to feed hi... Continued...

Holy Grail of globalisation
Everybody who is anybody in world agri politics will be in Hong Kong next week. Farming is not the only industry under the cosh. The World Trade Organisation, which is hosting the occasion, wants to impose globalisation on many other activities. But agriculture gets most publicity and most blame for... Continued...

Failed talks may mar WTO credibility: HK trade chief
The credibility of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will be under threat if ministers of the organization's members fail to reach agreement at their meeting next week in Hong Kong, the host city's commerce and trade chief said on Thursday. "Another failure is unthinkable and would come pretty c... Continued...

UN aid agency chiefs urge WTO negotiators to protect food aid
The heads of three of the largest UN relief agencies on Thursday called on World Trade Organisation negotiators to ensure food aid is protected amid efforts to liberalise global farm commerce. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, plus the leaders of the World Food Programme (WFP) and children's... Continued...

Mystery group threatens to disrupt Hong Kong WTO summit
An anonymous group claiming to be "against global unification" has threatened to disrupt next week's WTO talks here that aim to reduce barriers to global trade, reports said Thursday. Letters sent to several local newspapers ominously warned that the group would "present an unforgettable Christma... Continued...

Report: Free Trade Threatens Small Farmers
Lifting trade barriers is threatening the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and fisherman and contributing to desertification in Africa, the environmental group Friends of the Earth said in a report released Thursday. The report, "The Tyranny of Free Trade," released just days before the start o... Continued...

Food subsidies: Multinationals, not farmers, reap biggest rewards in Britain's share of CAP payouts:
The largest individual payments made to the UK under the much criticised common agricultural policy are going to multinational food companies and not, as commonly assumed, to farmers. A Guardian investigation into CAP payments has found that millions of pounds are being paid to manufacturers of bulk... Continued...

Powerful and detested WTO finds itself at crossroads
When the World Trade Organisation (WTO) holds its ministerial conference in Hong Kong this month, its own future will also be at stake. Now 10 years old, the WTO has become so powerful because no one can get around it. Saudi Arabia is due to become the 149th member this Saturday, China joined fou... Continued...

'Alternative Nobel' winners urge Canada to guard water rights
Water is not a campaign issue this election, but it should be, say two Canadian activists being honoured internationally. "Canada was the only country to vote against accepting water as a human right," says Maude Barlow, in Stockholm to receive the Right Livelihood Award. "We're very concerned ab... Continued...

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

IATP at the Hong Kong WTO ministerial

• Reception for the Hong Kong Trade and Development Symposium and The Fair Trade Fair: 13 Dec., 18.30-22.00, HK Exhibition Centre with ICTSD and Fair Trade Committee
• Human Rights and the WTO: Examining the Impacts: 14 Dec., 10.00-13.00, NGO Centre/Room A with 3D and FID... Continued...
  Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm
  

  Right Livelihood Award Laureates Call for Water and Land Rights, and for Global Justice
  The recipients of this year's Right Livelihood Awards (often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prizes') arrived in Stockholm on Tuesday. They were speaking at a press conference in the Foreign Office Press Room on Wednesday morning 7 December 9:30 CET. Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke are Canadia... Continued...

  Africa News
  

  Kenya; Sugar Farmers a Worried Lot
  When Wilfred Talai Shibweche retired from the civil service in 1988 and ventured into cane farming, the sub-sector was vibrant. Farmers were paid well and promptly for their deliveries to millers. Nzoia, Mumias, Chemelil, Sony, Miwani, and Muhoroni, and West Kenya sugar companies were thriving. ... Continued...

  Africa News
  

  Namibia's Position At WTO Talks
  In view of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting starting early next week in Hong Kong, Namibia Development Trust and other stakeholders yesterday met to discuss Namibia's position in trade justice. Many members of society have anticipated that the upcoming WTO would be crucial ... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  Brazil expects little from WTO meeting, calls for new summit
  Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Wednesday that Brazil expects talks on a global trade deal to fail at next week's WTO meeting in Hong Kong and called for a new summit on trade between the G8 nations and developing countries. Amorim said that during a telephone call Wednesday between Brazilian ... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  Wolfowitz: WTO must rewrite trade rules for sake of world's poor
  World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz appealed Wednesday to WTO members "to rewrite the rules of an unfair trading system" when they meet next week and so lift more than a billion people out of desperate poverty. Trade rather than aid is the best way to ensure schooling and healthcare for the many whos... Continued...

  Associated Press
  

  Impasse over farm trade undermines WTO summit in Hong Kong
  Seattle, Cancun... Hong Kong? Trade summits in the first two cities collapsed amid bickering and strident street protests. Now trade ministers hope Hong Kong, where they gather for next week's World Trade Organization meeting, won't become a third name on that list. But they've done a good job... Continued...

  Associated Press
  

  Unaccustomed to violence, Hong Kong bracing for disruptions at WTO meeting
  They've stocked up on rubber bullets. They've been drilling with their riot shields. But there are still some doubts about whether Hong Kong's police are ready for the thousands of protesters expected to converge on the city's streets for the World Trade Organization summit next week. Hong Kong i... Continued...

  Christian Science Monitor
  

  Critics slam system as food aid to Guatemala lags
  On a late afternoon here, Domingo Poron and his brother, Antonio, harvested rocks on the land where they once harvested corn, beans, coffee, and plantains. The rock crop is plentiful this year, washed down from steep mountain slopes when hurricane Stan caused torrential rains in early October. Mo... Continued...

  Deutsche Presse-Agentur
  

  FAO: Agricultural trade liberalization not always good for the poor
  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Wednesday in Geneva presented its 2005 report on agricultural trade and poverty, saying that trade liberalization was not always to the benefit of the world's poor. Coming days before world trade ministers are to hold crucial talks in ... Continued...

   

  Tuesday, December 6, 2005

  The New Zealand Herald
  

  It's all about market access to agriculture
  It must be truly terrifying to be a Green MP. To have the responsibility of saving the planet from so many threats, and yet be understood so little. What catastrophe is it this time, you ask. According to Greens leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next week may cause... Continued...

  Africa News
  

  Removal of Subsidies at Hong Kong Talks Will not Guarantee Benefits to Uganda
  UGANDA will join other poor countries in fighting for the removal of state subsidies to farmers in developed countries as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial level summit kicks off in Hong Kong, on December 13th. But analysts have doubts whether that alone will be of benefit to Uganda ... Continued...

  AFX International Focus
  

  WTO secures emergency drugs distribution deal ahead of Hong Kong summit
  BRUSSELS (AFX) - The World Trade Organisation has agreed to update international intellectual property laws to facilitate poor countries' access to cheap drugs in emergencies. The WTO amendment, which comes as part of a wider development package ahead of the ministerial summit in Hong Kong this m... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  A cautious China to host and negotiate crucial WTO talks in Hong Kong
  In the four years since joining the WTO, China has carved out a powerful role for itself as the world's factory floor, a shining example for developing countries on the potential benefits of global trade. Yet when China hosts a crucial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Hong Kong fr... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  NGOs cling to hope of WTO trade progress
  Non-governmental organizations are hopeful of some progress at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting later this month but acknowledge that poor nations are unlikely to win substantial deals on trade liberalization. "It's not time to lose hope," said Amy Barry, Oxfam International's spo... Continued...

  Associated Press
  

  U.S. warns Americans of possible violence at WTO meeting
  The United States on Tuesday urged U.S. citizens who will be in Hong Kong during next week's world trade summit to be aware of possibly violent protests. The Dec. 13-18 World Trade Organization meeting is expected to draw 10,000 demonstrators, and some fear that violence of the type that has pla... Continued...

  Associated Press Worldstream
  

  WTO approves measures to improve access to cheaper medicines in developing countries
  World Trade Organization members on Tuesday approved measures to improve access to cheaper generic versions of medicines in developing countries. According to the changes to the WTO's intellectual property agreement - which will make permanent a waiver when ratified by two-thirds of the trade bod... Continued...

  Associated Press
  

  Farmers, activists plan anti-WTO protests as Hong Kong gears up for summit
  Radical protesters smashing shop windows and club-wielding police often grab the spotlight at World Trade Organization summits, and - with 10,000 demonstrators expected - fears are that similar violence will bedevil next week's WTO meeting in Hong Kong. It will be the first time this orderly glob... Continued...

  BusinessWorld
  

  Cheap imports pressure RP's vegetable sector
  The local vegetable sector continues to lose its hold on the domestic market to cheaper imported varieties. Data from left-wing think tank IBON Foundation show that vegetable importation grew to 115,000 metric tons in 2000 from only 42,000 metric tons in 1995, when the Philippines first joined th... Continued...

  Deutsche Presse-Agentur
  

  Hong Kong ministerial is make-or-break for WTO and Lamy
  Global trade talks opening in Hong Kong next week will seriously test the credibility of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Pascal Lamy, its new director general. Expectations for the December 13-18 ministerial meeting have been radically scaled down, reflecting lack of progress in the so-cal... Continued...

  Deutsche Presse-Agentur
  

  Hong Kong police prepare for "nightmare" WTO protests
  Panicked diners and staff flee as a McDonald's restaurant in the centre of Hong Kong is set on fire by anarchists. Two streets away, anti-globalization fanatics gleefully kick in the windows of a Starbucks coffee shop. Elsewhere, police fight running battles with South Korean farmers trying to fo... Continued...

  Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
  

  WTO ruling in favour of Canada
  VANCOUVER - The latest World Trade Organization softwood lumber ruling opens the door for Canada to retaliate against the United States, the Department of International Trade said Monday. Trade officials said the WTO appellate body has upheld Canada's position that U.S. procedures used to establ... Continued...

  Press Association
  

  Offers To Cut Farm Subsidies 'An Illusion'
  Offers by the EU and the US to cut agricultural subsidies are "nothing more than an illusion", according to a new report. Published by the charity ActionAid, it highlights the negative impact of free trade policies on the Third World. It also claims proposals at the World Trade Organisation's ... Continued...

  South China Morning Post
  

  Maids told to stay away from protests; Activists say red tape is holding up their visa applications
  Foreign domestic workers and activists from Southeast Asia are facing increasing obstacles to join protests against the World Trade Organisation meeting next week, an anti-globalisation group claimed yesterday. The International League of Peoples' Struggle said foreign domestic workers were being... Continued...

   

  Monday, December 5, 2005

  Agence France Presse
  

  'Bridget' heartthrob woos EU over fair trade
  British heartthrob actor Colin Firth pressed EU trade chief Peter Mandelson Monday to do more to help the world's poor in crunch WTO talks this month, saying the current situation is "intolerable." Firth, a star of the "Bridget Jones Diary" films, brought a 10-million signature petition to the EU... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  WTO protesters allege Hong Kong, Indonesia try to deter rallies
  An international anti-globalisation group alleged Monday that the Hong Kong and Indonesian authorities tried to discourage its members from participating in protests planned for the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit. International League of People's Struggle (ILPS), which represents ... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  Pascal Lamy faces baptism of fire at Hong Kong WTO fest
  World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy faces a baptism of fire at the WTO's ministerial conference in Hong Kong on December 13, less than four months after he took the helm of the global trade body. Despite the unusual unanimity that surrounded his appointment, the former EU trade ... Continued...

  Associated Press
  

  Troublemakers won't be tolerated at Hong Kong's WTO meeting: official
  Hong Kong authorities won't tolerate unruly protesters at the World Trade Organization meeting next week in the territory but they will try to minimize the number of arrests, a senior official said Monday. Peter Yam, Hong Kong's police director of operations, said at a news conference that author... Continued...

  The Hindu
  

  Countdown To WTO Meet In Hong Kong
  At this stage the best thing going for the Hong Kong ministerial meet is that all 148 countries are willing to continue their negotiations despite their differences. WITH THE Hong Kong ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation less than ten days away attention has shifted to keeping th... Continued...

  National Post's Financial Post & FP Investing (Canada)
  

  Breakthrough in farm trade talks: India, Brazil back down
  India and Brazil signalled this weekend they are prepared to open up their protected markets to foreign food imports, giving some hope the current global trade talks will not collapse. The two huge developing economies, which had thrown up some of the roadblocks in the Doha Round of trade talks ... Continued...

  Soybean Producers of America
  

  Free Trade is Becoming Harder to Swallow
  “Bad chicken or imported soy-diesel doesn’t go down well” DES ARC, Ark. , Dec. 1, 2005 -- Recent events involving imports and exports of agricultural commodities are casting shadows on the wisdom of unfettered free trade. The latest revelations include imported soy-diesel (or the palm oil to pro... Continued...

   

  Sunday, December 4, 2005

  Los Angeles Times
  

  Growers Struggle as Trade Barriers Fall
  SANTA CRUZ DE YOJOA, Honduras — Farming has never been easy in these misty, rugged highlands. But it has gotten a lot tougher for growers like Marcos Munoz Nunez. He once owned 43 acres of farm ground, most of which he planted with long-grain rice. Earnings from that lush, grassy crop paid for hi... Continued...

   

  Saturday, December 3, 2005

  Agence France Presse
  

  World Bank chief says trade barriers indefensible
  Farm trade barriers are obstables to development in poor countries and are indefensible, World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz said Friday. "Let's put it simply," Wolfowitz told a National Foreign Trade Council dinner, farm trade barriers are "harmful and indefensible." Wolfowitz spoke a week ahead... Continued...

  BBC Monitoring International Reports
  

  Protesters Allowed Into Hong Kong During Wto Trade Conference
  Text of report by Radio TV Hong Kong Radio 3 audio website on 3 December Secretary for security Ambrose Lee says the government won't prevent peaceful protesters from entering Hong Kong during the WTO conference. But he said immigration officers would check those with records of causing trouble a... Continued...

  South China Morning Post
  

  WTO on a learning curve
  The global trade conference is proving an ideal topic to 'road test' the push for liberal studies as students get more involved in global issues, writes Will Clem "THE WORLD TRADE Organisation isn't fair. It doesn't function in a fair and just manner. It is directed by affluent countries at the e... Continued...

  Reuters
  

  Chances seen dwindling for WTO deal by late 2006
  Chances are dwindling for negotiators to reach a new world trade agreement by the end of 2006, increasing the possibility the Bush administration will have to seek renewal of its trade negotiating authority without a firm deal in hand, analysts said on Friday. "The probability of concluding the d... Continued...

  Bloomberg
  

  U.S., EU and Brazil Aim for Breakthrough on Farm Aid by March 1
  World Trade Organization negotiators gave themselves three months to agree on farm-export subsidies, saying they won't be able to overcome the main stumbling blocks to a trade accord at a summit this month. Meeting 10 days before the WTO's 149 governments gather in Hong Kong, trade ministers fro... Continued...

   

  Friday, December 2, 2005

  Copyright © 2005, APN Holdings NZ Ltd
  

  Just Water swallowing up Australia's Clearwater
  Listed bottled water company Just Water International has bought Australian water dispenser company Clearwater Filter Systems for about A$14 million ($14.7 million). Just Water is paying for Clearwater largely through shares and the final purchase price is subject to final profit figures for the ... Continued...

  Hong Kong Trade and Development Symposium
  We are proud to invite you to attend the Hong Kong Trade and Development Symposium (HKTDS), which will take place from 13-17 December, 2005 at the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre. The HKTDS is co-convened by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and The University of Hon... Continued...

  The Economist
  

  Living with number one
  THEIR country, Canadians sometimes say, is 5,500 miles long and one inch thick—by which they mean that most Canadians live in a scattered archipelago of cities huddled along the 49th parallel, the border with the United States. Having a friendly superpower on your doorstep confers great advantages. ... Continued...

  The New Zealand Herald
  

  Apple growers could push for WTO action
  Apple growers could urge the Government to take an immediate case to the World Trade Organisation over the Australian import ban without waiting for an approval process that could take two years. Upset at the prospect of Australian quarantine officers "turning over every leaf" in orchards searchi... Continued...

  Africa News/ Inter Press Service
  

  Southern Africa; Disillusion Ahead of World Trade Organization Summit
  Campaigners from Southern Africa are bracing for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to be held in Hong Kong later this month. Some plan to send representatives to the meeting, to protest against unfair trade legislation -- particularly as this relates to agriculture. These representatives w... Continued...

  Agence France Presse
  

  EU trade chief casts doubt over G7-developing summit on WTO talks
  European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson on Friday said he doubted whether it would be possible to hold a summit of the Group of Seven economic powers and key developing nations to discuss faltering global trade talks. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for the summit "as soon as possib... Continued...

  BusinessWorld
  

  Developing nations push for fairer trade
  Nine developing countries accused rich nations of sidelining the interests of the poor in World Trade Organization (WTO) talks on liberalizing global commerce. Faizel Ismail, South Africa's ambassador to the WTO, said concerns are rising about the way the Doha Round of trade talks is heading. ... Continued...

  Chicago Tribune
  

  The Byrd lottery
  Congress is halfway home to killing the egregious Byrd Amendment, a law that violates global trade rules and makes a mockery of the American case for free trade. The House included a repeal of the amendment in its version of the budget reconciliation bill passed just before the Thanksgiving recess. ... Continued...

  South China Morning Post
  

  Police urge chain store visitors to be on their guard;
  Police have asked hotel operators to remind tourists to be vigilant when visiting leading international chains, such as Starbucks and McDonald's, in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui during this month's WTO ministerial meeting. Officers cited the chains as possible targets for pro... Continued...

  The Standard
  

  Anti-Wto Activists Begin Offensive On Shaky Ground
  A pan-Asian coalition of anti-World Trade Organization activists have made their pitch to Hong Kong, repeating many questionable charges that have frequently been shot down by outside trade experts, such as the supposed adverse effects of a trade accord on the local service economy. A group of six a... Continued...

  Xinhua General News Service
  

  Brazil calls for G-7 meeting to help diffuse WTO talks stalemate
  Brazil has asked Britain to help convene a meeting of the group of seven industrial nations to reduce impediments to talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the official Brazil news agency said on Thursday. Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talked about the problem with British Pr... Continued...

  Xinhua General News Service
  

  Indonesia to propose for special treatment of agricultural products
  Indonesia will pursue its proposal in the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting that agricultural products be given special treatment, Trade Minister Mari E. Pangestu said here on Friday. "We will give priority to our national interest. At the Hong Kong meeting, we will continue to... Continued...

  UNI
  

  India: 'Rice bowl' threatened by brackish water
  Alappuzha (Kerala): Farmers in Kuttanad, the "rice bowl of Kerala," were an apprehensive lot these days as fledgeling paddy plants were threatened by brackish water flowing in from the sea through leaky shutters of bunds on the backwaters. Demanding immediate steps to curb the flow of salty water... Continued...

   

  Thursday, December 1, 2005

  Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
  

  Lamy, NGOs in open battle before Hong Kong Ministerial
  GENEVA, Nov 30 -- Trade unions and civil society organizations presented a detailed letter to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy on Wednesday explaining how the WTO services negotiations have been undemocratic and undermining the consensus mode of decision-making. The let... Continued...

  WTO
  

  11th Hour Appeal for Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Meeting: Learn from Cancun
  Mr Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO, invites you to a "live" online chat with him on Monday 5 December, 2005 between 12:00 and 13:00 (Geneva time) for an exchange of views on WTO issues in advance of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong 13-18 December, 2005. See the WTO website for f... Continued...

  Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
  

  UK: Water bills not to rise above level of inflation for 4 years, despite claims from the industry that they should rise
  Industry’s call for 88 per cent increase over eight years to fund a programme of capital investment is rejected by the regulator INCREASES in water bills in Scotland over the next four years will be kept below the rate of inflation despite claims from the industry that they should rise by 88 per ... Continued...

  German Marshall Fund
  

  New Analysis Shows Ambitious Trade Reforms By U.S. and Europe Would Increase Global Prosperity
  WASHINGTON, DC — Less than two weeks from the start of the critical World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial in Hong Kong, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) announced the results of the first econometric analysis of proposals by the United States and Europe currently on the tabl... Continued...

   

  Wednesday, November 30, 2005

  IATP
  

  Open Letter Response To Wto Director General Pascal Lamy's Reply To Ngos, Dated 17 November 2005
  November 30, 2005 Dear Mr. Lamy, The undersigned trade unions and civil society organization would like to thank you for your response to our letter of, 1 November 2005. While we welcome this public dialogue with you, it is regrettable that for some time, you chose to only publish your respon... Continued...

  DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
  

  Ex-WTO Head Sees EU Losing Biotech Food Case-Source
  BRUSSELS -- The former head of the World Trade Organization expects the European Union to lose a multi-million dollar legal case over a ban on imports of genetically modified organisms, an Indian non-profit research foundation told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday. Supachai Panitchpakdi, who now hea... Continued...

   

  Tuesday, November 29, 2005

  Reclaiming development in WTO Doha Round
  The recent proposals by some major Developed countries in the WTO threaten the developmental content of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and it is thus timely to reclaim the Development content of the Round, nine developing countries said Monday in a submission to the WTO Committee on Trade and De... Continued...

   

  Friday, November 18, 2005

  Lamy to NGOs: your criticism is based on a misunderstanding of services talks
  18 November 2005 SERVICES Non-governmental organizations that signed an open letter to the WTO misunderstand the way a text on services for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference is being drafted, Director-General Pascal Lamy says in a reply released on 17 November 2005. The text is based on ide... Continued...

   

  Sunday, November 6, 2005

  IPS
  

  POLITICS-INDIA: Right to Information Exposes World Bank Water Deal
  NEW DELHI, Nov 6 (IPS) - India’s new right-to-information laws have drawn first blood -- secret deals involving the World Bank to privatise water supply and sanitation in the Indian capital. Parliament passed a right to information bill in May but, by then, several states had already gone ahead w... Continued...

   

  Friday, August 19, 2005

  Baby Milk Action Update
  

  Tap Water Awards – Edinburgh Festival 2005
  Demonstration against Nestlé Events 27 and 28 August 2005 Baby Milk Action will be supporting the annual Tap Water Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Sunday 28 August 2005 with demonstrations at the Nestlé-owned Perrier Comedy Awards ceremony on Saturday 27 August and at the winners' p... Continued...

   

  Thursday, August 18, 2005

  IRC Americas
  

  Water Privatization in Latin America
  The drive to privatize water distribution and resources is gaining steam in Latin America. Although transnational water companies have suffered setbacks in places like Puerto Rico, Bolivia, and Uruguay, they continue with plans to appropriate the region's hydrological resources-rivers, aquifers, wel... Continued...