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News archives

Friday, February 27, 2004

Commodity Prices In The Spot Light
BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest | February 26, 2004 CTD: DECLINING COMMODITY PRICES IN THE SPOTLIGHT The WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) held its 48th session on 18 February 2004, chaired by newly-elected Ambassador Trevor Clarke (Barbados). Discussions in the Committee focused ... Continued...

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Economist""s Challenge Puzzles Free-Trade Believers
The Washington Post | By Paul Blustein | February 26, 2004 If economists could condemn members of their profession for heresy, Paul Craig Roberts would probably be a candidate for excommunication. Few tenets, after all, are so widely shared among economics PhDs as the belief in the positive ... Continued...

Thailand Expects to Sign FTA with Australia in May
Dow Jones | Feb. 25, 2004 BANGKOK -(Dow Jones)- Thailand expects to sign its comprehensive free trade agreement with Australia in May, as many key issues have been settled, the commerce ministry's Permanent Secretary, Karun Kittisataporn, said Wednesday. "Negotiations on many trade issues hav... Continued...

Ex-Minister Says British Spies Bugged Kofi Annan""s Office
New York Times | By TERENCE NEILAN | February 26, 2004 British spies have regularly bugged the office of Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations, including during the period leading to the invasion of Iraq, a former British government minister said today. The ex-cabinet minister, Cla... Continued...

All Farm Export Subsidies on Table: EU
Reuters | Feb. 26, 2004 The EU's refusal to embrace the goal of getting rid of all farm export subsidies by a certain date has been a major obstacle to progress in world trade talks. Its compromise offer to eliminate export subsidies on commodities of special interest to developing countries... Continued...

EU to Impose Sanctions on U.S. on Monday
Reuters | By Doug Palmer | Feb. 26, 2004 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said on Thursday the EU would slap a 5 percent duty on more than $4 billion worth of U.S. exports beginning on Monday because of Congress' failure to repeal tax breaks declared illegal by... Continued...

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Trade War Looms as U.S. Bans French Meat Imports
Independent (London) | By Stephen Castle and John Lichfield | Feb., 25 2004 The possibility of a messy transatlantic trade dispute was increased last night when it emerged that the US had suspended all meat imports ­ principally foie gras and salami ­ from France. This action appeared to be u... Continued...

Arbitrator Approves EC Countermeasures Against US Anti-dumping Law
World Trade Organization - Arbitrator approves EC countermeasures against US anti-dumping law Now on the WTO website: ARBITRATOR APPROVES EC COUNTERMEASURES AGAINST US ANTI-DUMPING LAW An arbitrator, in a decision (WT/DS136/ARB) issued by the WTO on 24 February 2004, concluded that the Europe... Continued...

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

India Resists Trade Arm-Twisting
The Australian | February 24, 2004 INDIAN IT leaders say they are not concerned by what they see as Western "arm-twisting" for the country to open its markets to offset jobs that rich nations have lost to offshore outsourcing. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick last week urged India to o... Continued...

It""s Back To The Dark Ages On Trade
Chicago Tribune | By Amity Shlaes | February 24, 2004 It is Feb. 24 2005, and President John Kerry and his economic team--Roger Altman and Alan Blinder from the U.S. Treasury and U.S. trade representative Clyde Prestowitz--are busy converting the U.S. into a protectionist fortress. - The Nor... Continued...

World Commission Demand For Fairer Globalisation Gets Full Support Of The ICFTU
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) | February 24, 2004 Commenting on the publication in London today of the report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder said, "A major mission of the international trade union move... Continued...

WTO To Overcome Deadlock In Doha Round Soon: Supachai
XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE | February 24, 2004HEADLINE: SAN JOSE, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) --Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Supachai Paniitchpakdi expressed his confidence that the deadlock hindering the Doha negotiations would soon be overcome. The 146 WTO members would reac... Continued...

.US.: Climate Change Could Cause Global Woe
The Miami Herald | By SETH BORENSTEIN | February 24, 2004 U.S.: Climate change could cause global woe; A new report ordered by the Pentagon warns that a sudden change in climate could become a violent global battle for control of scarce resources.; A dramatic climate change could suddenly bec... Continued...

International Day of Farmers"" Struggle
Via Compesina | February 24, 2004 Call for worldwide action on the 17th of april 2004 the International Day of Farmers' Struggle WTO, Worldbank and transnationals out of agriculture and food! In Cancun during the Ministerial Conference, peasants, indigenous, youth and other sectors or... Continued...

Monday, February 23, 2004

Are Multinationals All That Powerful?
BusinessWorld | By Benjamin G. Defensor | February 23, 2004 One of the favorite lines of the anti-globalization sector is that multinationals have become so big and powerful that a) they are even bigger than some states and b) they have amassed enough political power to dictate policy to some sm... Continued...

Friday, February 20, 2004

Effects Of WtTO And FTAA In Latin America
Crop Biotech | February 20, 2004 The International Food Policy Research Institute has released a discussion paper analyzing the effect on output, employment, and poverty on two alternative versions of further trade liberalization: free trade world wide (WTO) and the Western hemisphere free trade ... Continued...

The Trade Deal Nobody Wanted
Aberdeen American News (South Dakota) | February 20, 2004 After the Feb. 8 announcement that U.S. and Australia negotiators had survived two weeks of contentious, continuous deal-making to forge a bilateral free trade pact, the loudest reaction from the biggest pro-trade American farm groups was... Continued...

Farm Trade Nations To Meet In Costa Rica On Stalled WTO Negotiations
Agence France Presse | February 20, 2004 The 17-nation Cairns Group of agricultural exporters meets in Costa Rica next week to discuss ways to kick-start the stalled Doha round of global trade liberalisation negotiations, Australia said Friday. Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the th... Continued...

U.S. Officials Says No Trade Talk Round Without EU Elimination Of Agricultural Export Subsidies
The Associated Press | By NAOMI KOPPEL | February 20, 2004 A global treaty to boost the economy by cutting barriers to international trade is only possible if the European Union agrees to scrap subsidies on farm exports, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Friday. "Let's quit foolin... Continued...

WHO Calls Elimination Of Bird Flu ``Increasingly Challenging""""
Associated Press | February 20, 2004 BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - None of the eight Asian countries struck by the bird flu strain that has decimated poultry and killed 22 people have managed to control their outbreaks despite intense efforts in many of them, the World Health Organization said Thursd... Continued...

Canadian Supreme Court Justice Named UN Human Rights High Commissioner
SUPREME COURT OF CANADA | February 20, 2004 OTTAWA, February 20, 2004 - The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, today congratulated Justice Louise Arbour on her nomination by Secretary General Kofi Annan as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Justice Arbour annou... Continued...

Thursday, February 19, 2004

UN Study Calls for Improved Initiatives On African Commodity Trading
Africa News | February 19, 2004 While industrialized countries undermine Africa's anti-poverty efforts with huge subsidies for their own commodity producers, the continent's own non-fuel exports have lost international market share over the last two decades, the United Nations Conference on Trad... Continued...

Venezuela Pres Blasts FTAA As ""Imperial Platform""
Associated Press | February 19, 2004 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blasted the Free Trade Area of the Americas, telling a group of Guyanese officials Thursday that the hemispheric bloc was designed to make Latin Americans poorer. Chavez, who arrived Thursday for hi... Continued...

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

EU To Ask For WTO Panel On US Anti-Dumping Methodology
AFX.COM | February 17, 2004 The EU will today ask for a panel to be set up to examine the compatibility of US anti-dumping methodology with WTO rules, the European Commission said. The US uses "zeroing," a method of calculating the impact of dumping that ignores negative margins connect... Continued...

Bilateral Pacts Cannot Replace Multilateral System: Sec-Gen
Business Times (Malaysia) | February 17, 2004 THE International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) reminded governments not to be enticed by the short-term gains of bilateral trade pacts because smaller and weaker countries would never fully benefit from such deals. ICC secretary-general Maria Livanos ... Continued...

India Won""t Open Markets Unless Developed Nations Cut Farm Subsidies
Agence France Presse | February 17, 2004 India warned Tuesday it will not open its markets further unless developed nations move swiftly to cut subsidies on their agriculture exports. "If developed nations practise protectionism, their expectations in sensitive areas of developing nations sho... Continued...

Britain Fires Early Salvo In GM Foods Row
Agence France Presse | February 17, 2004 Britain fired a shot across the bows of the United States over genetically-modified (GM) food as environment ministers from around 70 countries prepared to meet here Wednesday on preserving the diversity of life on earth. Although the touchy issue of G... Continued...

African Ministers Open Informal Trade Talks Ahead of WTO Negotiations
World Markets Analysis | By Gus Selassie | February 17, 2004 Trade ministers from 18 African countries are meeting in the coastal Kenyan town of Mombasa today to begin informal trade talks aimed at establishing a common negotiation position ahead of the next round of World Trade Organisation (WTO... Continued...

No Deal For Poor Nations
The Guardian (London) | Letters to the Editor on Development | February 17, 2004 We welcome the chancellor's commitment to dedicate the UK's presidency of the G8 in 2005 to development and to use it as an opportunity for Britain to lever a significant increase in aid resources from developed coun... Continued...

Monday, February 16, 2004

Wheat Patent : Govt Assures Action
Financial Express | ASHOK B SHARMA | February 16, 2004 The Union government today assured the Supreme Court that all necessary steps would be taken, if the situation so required, to object to the patent rights on Indian wheat landrace accorded to the US seed multinational, Monsanto by the Europea... Continued...

Friday, February 13, 2004

WTO Public Symposium 2004
World Trade Organization | February 12, 2004 From 25 to 27 May 2004, the WTO will organize its annual public symposium in Geneva. The symposium's set-up will be similar to that of previous years: an opening plenary session on the first day (am), followed by individual work sessions which will run ... Continued...

FTA: How The Deal Was Done
Australian Financial Review | By Tony Walker Washington | February 14, 2004 Former Prime Minister Keating wasn't interested. Jeb Bush, the President's brother, took too much notice. This is the inside story of the road, so far, to a free trade agreement with the US. First, a spot of news. If ... Continued...

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Hastert Rebukes Bush Adviser
Washington Post | By Mike Allen | February 12, 2004 House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), one of the nation's highest-ranking Republicans, rebuked the chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers yesterday for calling the transfer of U.S. service jobs overseas "just a new way to do... Continued...

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Brazil Waxes Optimistic On Americas Free Trade Pact
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES | By Mike Esterl | February 11, 2004 NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Brazil remains optimistic about inking a hemispheric trade pact by the end of the year, a senior trade official said Wednesday. Deputy trade ministers from 34 countries were unable to agree on a framework for a Fre... Continued...

Brazil to Host UNCTAD XI in June 2004
Africa News | February 11, 2004 The eleventh United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI) will be held at the Anhembi Conference Centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 13 to 18 June 2004. UNCTAD, the UN focal point for development issues in the fields of trade, finance, investmen... Continued...

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

An Alternative For Brazil And India
The Hindu | By William Cortezia and Ajay Panicker | February 10, 2004 IN THESE times of globalisation, independent bilateral initiatives between nations are bound to be viewed with suspicion by the international community - especially so, if the two nations involved are big enough to be pivotal ... Continued...

Monday, February 9, 2004

U.S., Australia Agree on Free-Trade Pact
Washington Post | By Paul Blustein | Feb. 9, 2004 The United States and Australia announced yesterday that they concluded a free-trade agreement, one of the biggest in a series of two-way deals the Bush administration is pursuing with a number of countries aimed at tearing down barriers to intern... Continued...

Zoellick Says Congress Will Pass Trade Pact
US trade representative Bob Zoellick says he is encouraged by the reaction of the US Congress to the trade deal. Trade lobbyists in Washington believe the agreement's chances of passing through the Congress have been improved because sugar was left out. The head of an influential Washington fr... Continued...

Free Trade Agreement Signed
Australian Broadcast Corp. News Radio | Feb. 9, 2004 The signing of a trade deal with the United States overnight has left some farmers fuming, regional manufacturers rejoicing, and provoked a scathing attack from the Federal Opposition. "I mean, this is, at the end of the day, a 'Mickey Mouse... Continued...

Australia-U.S. Free Trade Deal Draws Mixed Response
Reuters | By Michelle Nichols | Feb. 9, 2004 CANBERRA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Australia's free trade agreement with the United States drew a mixed response on Monday with the nation's sugar industry angry at being sacrificed for a deal that business groups praised as a boost to the country's economy. ... Continued...

U.S., Australia Sign Free-Trade Pact
Associated Press | By Matthew Daly | Feb. 9, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The United States and Australia reached a free-trade agreement Sunday that officials say will eliminate duties from more than 99 percent of American manufacturing exports to Australia. The deal, which requires congressional approv... Continued...

Australia Sees Little Help from U.S. Pact
Reuters | By Michelle Nichols | Feb. 9, 2004 CANBERRA (Reuters) - A free trade agreement with the United States will bring little benefit to Australia, analysts and economists said on Monday after the deal failed to meet hopes on agriculture, although business groups welcomed it. The deal, str... Continued...

U.S., Australia Clinch ""Historic"" Trade Deal
Agence France Presse | By Stephen Collinson | Feb. 9, 2004 The United States and Australia Sunday unveiled a "historic" multibillion-dollar free trade pact after an Australian climbdown in a row over access to US sugar markets which almost scuppered a deal. Australian Prime Minister John Howar... Continued...

U.S.-Australia Free Trade Deal Opposed
Associated Press | By Mike Corder | Feb. 9, 2004 The ink was barely dry on a multibillion dollar U.S.-Australian free-trade deal Monday before opposition parties and farmers began condemning it, saying it was a sellout that ignored the interests of Australian agriculture. The Labor Party promi... Continued...

Australia Pact a Win for U.S. Farm Interests
Los Angeles Times | By Evelyn Iritani | Feb. 9, 2004 Powerful U.S. agricultural interests won a big victory Sunday when the United States and Australia agreed to a watered-down trade accord that promises to boost U.S. exports but limits greater access for imports of Australian sugar, beef and dai... Continued...

Friday, February 6, 2004

Looking South, North Or Both?
The Economist | February 7, 2004 WHEN Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva looks to the outside world he presents one of two faces: a welcoming one and a wary one. The first was on show last week in India, where Brazil's president signed the first trade deal between Mercosur, a South American trade block t... Continued...

Trade Becomes Big Issue For Ag In 2004
Aberdeen American News (South Dakota) | February 6, 2004 While standing in the Denver sunshine awaiting a ride to the airport recently, a young man approached. He worked at the U.S. Commerce Dept. on World Trade Organization and global trade issues, he explained. You've had a tough year, I of... Continued...

World Economic Growth For 2004 Expected To Be 3.5%
United Nations Press Release | February 6, 2004 World economic growth for 2004 expected to be 3.5 per cent, Economic and Social Council told; Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs introduces report on 'World Economic Situation and Prospects 2004' The economic recovery in t... Continued...

Investment Inflows To Developed Countries Fall
Zimbabwe Independent - AAGM | February 6, 2004 FOREIGN Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to developed countries declined for the second year in a row, falling to US $ 460 billion in 2002 from $ 590 billion in 2001, according to the World Investment Report 2003. The report was recently released... Continued...

Thursday, February 5, 2004

FTAA Negotiators Build On Lean Frame
Miami Herald | By JANE BUSSEY | February 5, 2004 PUEBLA, Mexico - Faced with the task of fleshing out the bare-bones trade accord reached in Miami last fall, regional trade negotiators have discovered that minimal commitments are becoming new stumbling blocks on the long road to a commercial pact... Continued...

WTO Leader Calls Regional Trade Agreements Discriminatory
Bangkok Post, Thailand | By Boonsong Kositchotethana | February 5, 2004 The head of World Trade Organisation slammed the mushrooming regional trade agreements (RTAs) as discriminatory and not conducive to attempts to forge a global trade liberalisation accord. RTAs are also commonly referred ... Continued...

A New Sense Of Determination For 2004 Global Free-Trade Talks
Philadelphia Inquirer | By Richard Waddington | February 5, 2004 After months of hibernation, global free-trade talks are starting to stir again. Many envoys and analysts had written off 2004 after a key meeting of trade ministers collapsed in September. The reasoning was that with elections ... Continued...

Competing Sugar Companies Team Up to Take On The Bush Administration and Save U.S. Jobs
American Sugar Alliance | February 5, 2004 Michigan Sugar and Monitor Sugar companies will hold a joint news conference on Thursday, February 5, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Monitor Sugar plant, 2600 S. Euclid Avenue in Bay City. The two sugar companies have collected more than 10,000 signa... Continued...

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

NGOs To Intensify Protests Against FTAA In Mexico
XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE | February 3, 2004 MEXICO CITY, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) --Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will oppose the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by intensifying protests against it. Groups like Oxfam, the US trade union AFL-CIO and Continental Social A... Continued...

Monday, February 2, 2004

Australia Will Not Sacrifice Its Interests For US Trade Deal - Government
AFX | February 2, 2004 Monday Australia will not sacrifice its interests in its bid to reach a free trade agreement with the United States, the Australian government warned as Trade Minister Mark Vaile continued efforts to secure a trade pact in Washington. Vaile and US Trade Representa... Continued...

Trading Down In a Steel Town
Newsday (New York) | By Deborah Barfield Berry | February 2, 2004 Georgetown, S.C. - James Sanderson's cell phone rang just after noon. A local reporter was calling to find out if he had heard about a potential buyer for the closed steel mill. Sanderson, the steelworkers' local union presiden... Continued...

Eight Key Issues Facing Canada
The Toronto Star | By Anne Golden | February 2, 2004 On day of throne speech, a reminder of some of the challenges we face, by Anne Golden While global economic restructuring accelerates, there is little evidence in this country of a sense of urgency about the need to respond to its challenge... Continued...

Saturday, January 31, 2004

Globalism Minus Jobs Equals Campaign Issue
New York Times | By ELIZABETH BECKER | January 31, 2004 COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 30 — Challenging the wisdom of free-trade agreements has become a blood sport in South Carolina. Local newspapers here trumpeted the state's latest job-loss figures — 22,400 in 2003, the worst in the nation. One new... Continued...

Friday, January 30, 2004

BSE - Potential Concerns within the EU
USDA FAS Daily Attache Report | January 30, 2004 Following the December 23 2003 announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that an adult Holstein dairy cow in Washington State had been found to be BSE positive, virtually all markets external to the US have been closed to US-produced fresh... Continued...

Friday, January 31, 2003

India Awards Wheat Patent For Chapati
The Guardian | By Randeep Ramesh | January 31, 2004 Monsanto, the world's largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati - the flat bread staple of northern India. The patents give the US multinational exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a... Continued...