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News archives

Thursday, July 29, 2004

WTO Farm Pact Wouldn't Be Panacea
GENEVA -- Slashing government handouts to farmers in places such as Europe and the U.S., a key goal for many nations in world trade talks here this week, by itself may do little to help farmers in poor countries. Inadequate transportation systems, inefficient farming techniques and severe price c... Continued...

WTO Proposal Delayed As Governments Struggle For Common Ground On Farm Trade
A new proposal on the framework of a world trade treaty was delayed Thursday as ministers and diplomats struggled to bridge the divide between rich and poor nations over farm trade negotiations. The paper was expected later Thursday, after the man leading the negotiations - New Zealand Ambassador... Continued...

WTO Pact Moves Step Closer
A global trade agreement moved a step closer Thursday after five core members of the World Trade Organization concluded a bargaining session with an accord. The talks between the five -- Russia, the United States, the European Union, Australia and India -- could open the way for a trade pact by t... Continued...

Developing Countries Upset Traditional Powerplay At WTO
Led by Brazil, a vehement opponent of agricultural subsidies paid in industralised nations, developing countries are continuing to upset the traditional powerplay in global trade talks. As the tormented negotiations at the World Trade Organisation on the way ahead continued into Thursday, develop... Continued...

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Canadian Farm Groups Comment On The Draft World Trade Organization (WTO) Framework
Following the release of the draft WTO framework, Canadian farm groups waded in with their comments. The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) was pleased with the draft, stating that the draft was a positive step forward and if accepted by WTO members, the draft would form the foundation for t... Continued...

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

US Maritime Transport Block A Major Hurdle For WTO Round
MAJOR trading powers, spearheaded by the European Union and Japan, say the initial offers in commercial services fall short of the mark and need to be substantially improved in order to have a balanced outcome in the troubled global trade talks, senior diplomats said. Ministers and senior officia... Continued...

Rich And Poor Countries Begin Final Drive For World Trade Compromise
Rich and poor countries in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were still at odds on Tuesday as the 147 member states prepared to make a final drive to revive crucial talks on dismantling global trade barriers. About 30 ministers and senior officials, including India's Trade Minister Kamal Nath, U... Continued...

Trade Ministers Arrive for WTO Talks
Trade ministers from around the world gathered for the formal start of make-or-break talks Tuesday, warning there is still a long way to go to find agreement on opening up the world market in farm goods. The World Trade Organization's 147 members have given themselves until the end of the week to... Continued...

WTO's Future In Jeopardy
The World Trade Organisation in Geneva has a self-imposed trade-talks deadline to agree to the framework of negotiations mandated by the launch of the Doha Development round. That deadline is this Saturday. As I say, these are not the negotiations, just the boundaries of the negotiations. Of cour... Continued...

From Cancun to Geneva; WTO Meeting in Geneva
Can the Doha round be put back on track? CANCUN, Mexico, is a favourite seaside destination for young gringos keen to primp, preen, show off and act out. With hindsight, it was perhaps not the best location for the World Trade Organisation's fifth ministerial meeting last September. Intended to m... Continued...

France Wins Delay On Farm Subsidies
HOPES OF a deal to restart talks aimed at freeing up world trade were dealt a blow yesterday after France won a victory in its bid to delay the wholesale abolition of farm subsidies. EU ministers ordered the European Commission to "improve the balance" of a World Trade Organisation proposal to elimi... Continued...

Seeding Clouds In China Sows Discontent Among Parched Villagers
LUOHE, China -- When rare clouds appear over this often-parched agricultural region, workers at the local weather bureau routinely roll out anti-aircraft guns and blast away at the sky. The shells that explode contain fine particles of silver iodide, which scatter through the moisture-laden cloud... Continued...

China Textile Industry Insists WTO Quotas Must Go
BEIJING (XFN) - Leaders from the Chinese textile industry have urged the World Trade Organization to stick to its pledge to abolish global garment and textile quotas as opposition to the move gathers pace, Xinhua News Agency reported. Cao Xinyu, deputy director of the China Chamber of Commerce... Continued...

NGO Briefing on Developed Countries' Tactics to Split Developing Countries
Rich countries are continuing to bribe, bully and threaten developing countries in the WTO to get their own way over global trade talks, the development agency ActionAid stated in a new report released Monday on the eve of the meetings of the WTO General Council, which is aiming to reach a... Continued...

Monday, July 26, 2004

Push For A Trade Deal
GENEVA Just as officials from major countries thought they were closing in on a new global trade pact in the Mexican resort of Canczn last year, African delegates led a noisy walk-out, saying that rich nations had little interest in making life fairer for the world's poorest farmers. Serenaded by... Continued...

How 5 Billion Got Left Behind
2004-08-02 - It's high noon for global trade negotiations. since the breakdown of talks in Cancun, Mexico, last September, Supachai Panitchpakdi, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, has tried frantically to get what is called the Doha round back on track. He has flown more than 250... Continued...

Brazil Sets Example For Taming AIDS In Latin America
A decade ago, health experts predicted an AIDS explosion in Latin America, striking hardest in Brazil, with its teeming population and sexual permissiveness. But the explosion never came, and experts say Brazil's handling of the problem may keep it from ever happening. "If you look over the ma... Continued...

West Africa; Africa Softens Stand On Cotton Subsidies
Four West African cotton producing states have dropped their demand that the crop be treated as a special agenda item at World Trade Organistion (WTO) farm talks, but insisted on guarantees of financial aid. Benin, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali told a WTO meeting they were ready to see cotton inclu... Continued...

US To Reject Free-Trade Deal Without "Substantial" New Openings
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick warned Monday he would reject a global free-trade deal without "substantial" new openings in agriculture, goods and services. "We will not accept a deal to put the round back on track simply for the sake of a deal," he said in a statement on the eve of cruc... Continued...

Farmers Groups From EU, Japan, Canada Voice Concern About Trade Talks
Farmers groups from the European Union, Japan and Canada said Monday they were very worried about the way talks on bringing down global trade barriers were heading. Representatives of a coalition of farmers federations said after a meeting with World Trade Organisation chief negotiator Shotaro Os... Continued...

S. Korean Farmers Protest Possible Opening Of Rice Market
Several thousand farmers and agricultural workers held a rally in downtown Seoul on Friday to protest what they claimed to be a move toward eventual full liberalization of South Korea's rice market, but no confrontations were reported. More than 2,800 members of the Korean Peasants League, an umb... Continued...

EU Demands More Specifics From Washington On Ending Farm Support To Save WTO Deal
Under pressure from France not to give away the farm, the European Union's trade negotiator said Monday he was willing to scrap EU agricultural subsidies only if the United States gets more specific about its promise to follow suit. "If we accept to zero export subsidies, we are making a big step... Continued...

Doha Strikes Another Stumbling Block
The federal government acknowledged yesterday that it faced big obstacles in the effort to reduce global agricultural subsidies after 10 rich countries launched a push to retain key trade barriers. The 10, including Switzerland, Japan and other farm-subsidy countries such as South Korea and Norwa... Continued...

Food Aid Program In Jeopardy; WTO Proposal Would Eliminate All 'In-Kind' Famine Relief
WASHINGTON Can you imagine a world in which Americans could not send U.S. food to starving countries, as we have done since 1954 under the Food for Peace program? A world in which the U.N. World Food Program and groups such as Catholic Relief Services and CARE would not have access to U.S. agricultu... Continued...

Big Powers Bullying Poor To Get Trade Deal In WTO Talks, Critics Say
GENEVA International aid and development groups on Monday accused the United States, the European Union and Japan of using bullying and threats to get poorer countries to agree to an unfair world trade pact. World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi says if there ... Continued...

Thursday, July 22, 2004

WTO Treaty Talks Close To Collapse
Key mediators warned yesterday that failure to agree on a draft of a global trade treaty at next week's gathering of the World Trade Organisation could doom the talks indefinitely. Mediators vowed to step up efforts to bridge differences ahead of the meeting of trade ministers in Geneva starting on... Continued...

Farm Subsidies and Africa: Cotton's Not King
SAINT PAUL, Minnesota It is increasingly asserted that American and European agricultural subsidies inhibit prosperity in the developing world, particularly in Africa. Critics argue that rich nations have aggressively dismantled trade barriers on industrial goods, yet shamelessly refused to do so fo... Continued...

Developing Countries Demand Changes As Obstacles Mount In Trade Talks
Developing countries have called for "important changes" to the World Trade Organisation's attempt to relaunch deadlocked global trade talks by an end-July deadline, it emerged Thursday. The G-20 group of developing countries said in dicussions this week that the draft proposals on agriculture pu... Continued...

Japan To Hang Tough On Tariffs At WTO
Worried that too few of its farm products may be exempted from massive tariff cuts, Japan plans to keep up the pressure on other World Trade Organization members as they try to hammer out a multilateral trade agreement. Pointing to a draft interim agreement presented Friday by WTO General Council... Continued...

India Wants WTO To Address Its Concerns
Armed with a broad political consensus on its World Trade Orangisation (WTO) strategy, the ruling coalition United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has said it would press for incorporating the country's concerns in the proposed Framework to be taken up at the General Council meeting in Geneva ... Continued...

Japan's Refusal Of American Apples Hurting Michigan Growers
Japan's 10-year-old import restrictions against U.S.-grown apples are hurting Michigan's growers, even though the state doesn't ship apples there. The Japanese government virtually stopped importing American apples in 1994, saying it feared they would bring in fire blight, a bacterial disease tha... Continued...

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

France Considers WTO Proposal On Agriculture "Unacceptable"
PARIS, July 21 (Xinhuanet) -- French President Jacques Chirac described Wednesday as "unacceptable" a proposal made by World Trade Organization (WTO) on agriculture to restart the Doha round multilateral negotiations. "I want the (European) commission to do everything to substantially re-bal... Continued...

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

EU Welcomes WTO Proposal As Positive Step
The European Union says a proposed deal to rescue global trade talks is a "step in the right direction." Mediators at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) presented a draft last Friday (Jul. 16) for an agreement on steering the stalled Doha Development Round (DDR) negotiations towards a pact on ref... Continued...

WTO Compromise In Global Trade Talks Draws Mixed Reaction
Trading nations have given a mixed reception so far to a final attempt by the World Trade Organisation to broker a compromise in deadlocked global trade talks by the end of the month. As informal discussions continued in Geneva, WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi reiterated Tuesday that t... Continued...

Wto Draft Framework Disappointing: India
Disappointed over the draft Framework for World Trade Organisation negotiations, India on Monday said more work was needed on agriculture to make it acceptable. "We believe that much work will have to be done in making the draft text acceptable," Commerce Ministry on Monday said in a statement. ... Continued...

Mediators Vow Best Efforts To Find Global Trade Agreement At WTO Meeting
Key mediators warned Tuesday that failure to agree on a draft of a global trade treaty at next week's gathering of the World Trade Organization could doom talks indefinitely. Mediators vowed to step up efforts to bridge differences ahead of the meeting of trade ministers in Geneva starting July 2... Continued...

Latino Group Blasts Us Trade Accord
WASHINGTON One of the country's largest Latino civil rights organizations yesterday denounced a proposed free trade agreement with Central America, asserting that the pact would destroy the region's economy and lead to increased immigration to the United States. The League of United Latin Am... Continued...

Argentina Official Sees Little Chance Of FTAA By 2005
BUENOS AIRES (AP)--An Argentine official told local reporters Tuesday that moves to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas, as promised by 2005, remain a long shot - lacking political momentum. Eduardo Sigal, an undersecretary for economic integration in Argentina's Foreign Ministry, was qu... Continued...

Monday, July 19, 2004

Summer Exercise Time...But The Livin' Ain't Easy
Summary: the U.S. and China are holding, or announcing, the usual series of real and simulated military and strategic summer exercises. But it's a measure of rising, if still mostly underlying jitters, that some on each side ascribe patterns and motives showing more imagination than analysis. Early ... Continued...

WTO Draft Opens The Door For Farm Talks
, India, July 19, 2004 **************************************** NEW DELHI, JULY 18: The Geneva secretariat has made a last-ditch effort to break the deadlock in negotiations in multilateral trading system. It has just come out with a 15-page framework draft for discussions in the WTO gene... Continued...

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

France Accuses the U.S. of AIDS Blackmail
July 14, 2004 Wednesday Home Edition Tempers flared here Tuesday as France accused the United States of trying to blackmail small countries such as Thailand into upholding patents on anti-AIDS drugs. Protesters shouted down speakers and drug company representatives as the few U.S. representa... Continued...

Arbitration Panel Ruling Favors Occidental in Ecuador Tax Dispute
LOS ANGELES -- Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) said today that a tribunal of international arbitrators formed under the US-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty has issued its unanimous decision awarding approximately $75 million as compensation for value added tax (VAT) refunds from the c... Continued...

Scientist Calls Decaf Coffee Row Tempest in Teacup
SAO PAULO, Brazil - The Brazilian scientist who recently discovered naturally decaffeinated coffee plants from a collection of wild Ethiopian beans said yesterday reports that he had taken coffee plants illegally from the African country were "nonsense." The spat has underscored the potential mo... Continued...

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Zoellick Questions Survival Of Doha Round If No Framework Agreement Reached In July
Zoellick Questions Survival Of Doha Round If No Framework Agreement Reached In July Remarks of U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick At the Opening Ceremony of the G-90 Meeting Trade Ministers Meeting Mauritius July 12, 2004 Excellency, Prime Minister and colleagues. I very... Continued...

Officials Cite Increasing Convergence, Continuing Gaps in Agriculture Framework
GENEVA--Top trade officials from the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, and Australia ended two days of meetings in Paris July 11 claiming some progress in efforts to finalize a framework agreement by the end of July for advancing the stalled World Trade Organization talks on ... Continued...

Monday, July 12, 2004

Venezuela President Speaks Against US Trade Deal At Summit
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)--Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has rejected plans by his Andean peers to seek a free trade agreement with the United States. Chávez on Monday rejected the agreement that Peru, Ecuador and Colombia are negotiating with the United States as "an imperial proposal that seeks ... Continued...

G90 Poor Nations Hold Strategy Session Over WTO Trade Talks
Trade ministers from the G90 developing nations were due to open a strategy session on global trade negotiations in Mauritius on Monday, less than a year after a World Trade Organization summit saw their bloc pitted against the world's wealthiest countries. The event's formal opening ceremony was... Continued...

WTO Trade Talks Show Signs Of Faltering
Trade ministers from developing countries were holding a meeting in Mauritius Monday, amid growing signs that the effort to revive global free trade talks by the end of this month were faltering. US trade representative Robert Zoellick and EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, were due to take part ... Continued...

WTO Trade Talks Show Signs Of Faltering
Trade ministers from developing countries were holding a meeting in Mauritius Monday, amid growing signs that the effort to revive global free trade talks by the end of this month were faltering. US trade representative Robert Zoellick and EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, were due to take part ... Continued...

EU Hints At Farm Export Compromise With U.S.
These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press The European Union on Monday backed its trade chief's "strategy and tactics" for forging a global trade deal, while stressing that any concessions on farm support had to be matched by the United Sta... Continued...

EU Says Australia Cannot Ignore Kyoto
Europe's chief negotiator on the Kyoto climate-change agreement has warned that Australia's opposition will become untenable when Russia signs, possibly before the end of the year, and has called on Australians to demand stronger political leadership on the issue. The European Union's environment... Continued...

New Trade Agenda For Poor Countries
In the year since the breakdown of the trade talks in Cancun, sentiment has increasingly grown in the developing world that no agreement is better than a bad one. But what would a good agreement look like? The British Commonwealth recently posed this question to myself and the Initiative for Poli... Continued...

Friday, July 9, 2004

WTO Postpones Agriculture Meeting From Next Week
The World Trade Organisation has postponed next week's key negotiations on liberalising the trade in agriculture, a trade source said today. A new date for the meeting of trade negotiators, which was meant to be held on July 14-16, will be announced as soon as possible, the source added. ... Continued...

Venezuela Joins Mercosur, Mexico, Provisionally
A Mercosur summit embraced Venezuela as an associate member and accepted Mexico in principle on Thursday, gaining two oil suppliers and extending the bloc to the US border. Eight heads of state attended the 26th Mercosur summit, which closed Thursday. The membership announcements obscured lack... Continued...

Europeans Don't Quaff But Rather Scoff At Bioengineered Beer
Spurned across the continent by food-fastidious Europeans, the biotechnology industry has turned in its quest for converts to the ultimate ice breaker: genetically modified beer. A consortium of the world's largest biotech companies led by Monsanto Co. helped fund a Swedish brewer's new light lag... Continued...

CEC Requests Mexico's Response To Submission On Hazardous Waste
Montreal, 9 July 2004—On 30 June 2004, pursuant to Article 14(2) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) requested a response from Mexico to submission SEM-04-001/Hazardous Waste in Arteaga, submitted... Continued...

NAFTA Needs Fixing, PM Says
SUN VALLEY, IDAHO -- Canada will push for major changes to NAFTA that will cut short seemingly perpetual trade disputes over softwood lumber and other flashpoints, Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday. In his first trip abroad since the June 28 election, Mr. Martin said he wants the No... Continued...

Thursday, July 8, 2004

US-Australian Trade Agreement Vote Expected
A vote on the US Australia trade agreement is expected before Congress adjourns for the summer, alarming farmers and ranchers who could be adversely affected immediately, according to some farm and labor groups. Implementing legislation was delivered to Congress Tuesday. The trade agreement... Continued...

US-Australian Trade Agreement Vote Expected
A vote on the US Australia trade agreement is expected before Congress adjourns for the summer, alarming farmers and ranchers who could be adversely affected immediately, according to some farm and labor groups. Implementing legislation was delivered to Congress Tuesday. The trade agreement... Continued...

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Protecting Foreign Investors BIT by BIT
International business carries with it inherent risks, not the least of which is the risk of harmful measures taken by foreign governments. What options are available to foreign investors in these circumstances? Traditionally, when their operations were subject to discriminatory measur... Continued...

EU May Revamp Trade Preference System
The European Union unveiled proposals Wednesday to revamp trade preferences for developing countries, aiming to shift tariff breaks to those that need it most. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said the reform would take greater account of market share in particular exports, such as textiles, whe... Continued...

Canada Guiding WTO Talks to End Farm Subsidies
OTTAWA - Canadian officials are helping to broker critical international talks on farm subsidies designed to help crack open wider world trade in agricultural products. Finding a way to end the billions of dollars in subsidies the United States and European Union give their farmers is crucial to ... Continued...

Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Human Error Likely Caused Mad Cow Scare
WASHINGTON - The first inconclusive test for mad cow disease was most likely caused by human error and not by the test used in the government's newly deployed rapid screening test, said a senior executive with the test's manufacturer. "What we are seeing right now is likely to be technician e... Continued...

The Gap Minds Itself
"WHEN I DECIDED TO JOIN GAP INC. IN the fall of 2002," writes Paul Presser, president and CEO of the clothing giant behind the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, "one of the first things my teenage daughter asked was, 'Doesn't Gap use sweatshops?'" An aggressive global movement for workers... Continued...

Food-Importing Nations Call For Right To Protect Farm Products
An alliance of food-importing countries, including South Korea, issued a joint statement Monday calling for the right to protect key farm products amid expectations of a framework agreement on agricultural sector liberalization at the end of the month. The statement, which was adopted at the end ... Continued...

Kerry Announces Edwards As Running Mate
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Tuesday selected former rival John Edwards to be his running mate, calling the rich former trial lawyer and rookie senator a man who showed "guts and determination and political skill" in his unsuccessful race against Kerry for the party's nomination. ... Continued...

WTO to Rule on Legality of Mexican Tax
The World Trade Organization on Tuesday agreed to appoint a group of experts to decide whether Mexico is violating global trade rules in a dispute with the United States over soft drinks. Washington claims that Mexico is in breach of international law in imposing a 20 percent tax on drinks that a... Continued...

Learning To Use WTO Rules For Protection
Chinese companies have made important progress in learning about how to play by WTO rules in anti-dumping cases. On June 30, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced that it will continue imposing anti-dumping taxes on imported newsprint from Canada, South Korea and the United States, ... Continued...

Costa Rica Delays CAFTA Ratification
SAN JOSE, July 6 (AFP) - Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco said Tuesday he will delay ratification of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States since Washington's approval will likely be held up by the US presidential election. "I do not think that before the e... Continued...

Friday, July 2, 2004

Consumer Group On Mad Cow
WASHINGTON — Health and consumer experts challenged federal government assertions Thursday that the possible discovery of a second U.S. case of mad cow disease should not concern American consumers or foreign buyers. U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists are retesting brain tissue from a s... Continued...

Secretive Meat Recalls Harm
Federal secrecy rules still limit the ability of Northwest states to help with meat recalls, as happened following the discovery of a Washington case of mad cow disease. In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled tons of meat that might have been processed with beef from the ... Continued...

Farm-subsidy Squabble Could Grow
Brazil, the world's largest coffee and sugar exporter, may decide to escalate its fight over U.S. and European barriers at the World Trade Organization as part of its continuing effort to gain a bigger share of global markets, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues said Thursday. Brazil is awaiti... Continued...

Of Mad Prices, Mad Cows and Mad Farmers
In the week before our nation celebrates its Birthday No. 228, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture proved once again that open access to public information is an unalienable right. The world's foremost farm and food agency proved it by violating it. Late last Friday, June 25, USDA acknowledged tha... Continued...

Thursday, July 1, 2004

Brazil, Emboldened by Cotton Case, May Escalate WTO Farm Fight
Brazil, the largest coffee and sugar exporter, may escalate a fight over U.S. and European barriers at the World Trade Organization to gain a bigger share of global markets, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues said. Brazil is awaiting the outcome of a WTO ruling in its favor over $3 billio... Continued...

Trade-Marks Act Hits 50th Anniversary
1954 will be remembered for many things. Play-Doh, Elvis' first record, Detroit winning the Stanley Cup. However, on July 1, another event occurred with much less fanfare. While Canadian families watched parades and ate picnic lunches to celebrate Canada's 87th birthday, the Trade-marks Act (TMA) qu... Continued...

Food Body Puts Off Discussion On Globalised Parmesan
The world's top food regulatory body has put off a discussion on integrating a recipe for Parmesan cheese into global food standards following strong objections from Italy and the EU, a spokesman said Thursday. The process -- backed mainly by the United States and Latin American countries -- coul... Continued...

U.S. Must Act Quickly On China
With its eye-shade green cover and generic title, the 2004 Report to Congress of the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission won't be as widely read as Richard Clarke's memories of the White House. Nor has it been optioned for a Hollywood movie, like Mr. Clarke's bestseller. Bu... Continued...

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

ISO Is To Develop An International Standard For Social Responsibilitynew Trade Agenda For Poor Countries
ISO is to develop an International Standard for social responsibility. The objective is to produce "a guidance document, written in plain language which is understandable and usable by non-specialists" and not intended for use in certification. The decision was taken at a senior ISO management me... Continued...

Outsourcing Now a GATS Issue
Geneva – Citing growing restrictions on outsourcing of technology jobs to developing countries by such industrial giants as the United States, India yesterday chose to flag the issue as a central element of the ongoing services negotiations – calling members to address the issue in the late July... Continued...

Monday, November 8, 1999

A Sophisticated Assault On Global Capitalism
In late November, Seattle is likely to be the scene of a big test for global capitalism. That's when more than 1,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are planning to disrupt the kickoff of a new round of global trade negotiations. The NGOs' collective claim is that unfettered commerce hur... Continued...