Environment @ Hong Kong: Momentum On Fish, Little Progress Otherwise	Environment-related negotiations clearly took a backseat vis-à-vis the main negotiating priorities in at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference on 13-18 December in Hong Kong (see In Brief, this issue). Nevertheless, environment-related discussions cropped up in a number of informal, green room and plenary discussions, as well as on the sidelines of the conference. While fisheries subsidies were not negotiated at the WTO meeting, a high-level press conference succeeded in raising public attention around the issue and may help to stimulate negotiations after the Hong Kong meeting. Despite valiant attempts to place environmental goods and services and the intellectual property rights-biodiversity linkage higher on the political agenda, virtually no progress was achieved in these areas, putting pressure on the proponents of these negotiations to mobilise support over the next few months. more
Commentary On The WTO Ministerial Meeting by Doeke Eisma and Pieter van der Gaag	The preamble of the WTO agreement puts sustainable development at the heart of the organisation. So how well did the WTO Members do at the Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong? Based upon the poor progress made on environmental issues, one minister suggested that countries for now do not seem ready to add the element of sustainability to their work, the preamble of the WTO agreement notwithstanding. Certainly, increasing the complexity of what is in front of negotiators now might make achieving success in the trade round nearly impossible, especially in the middle of a WTO crisis in which the world's largest blocks seem unable to find common ground, even in high-profile negotiations such as those on agriculture. This might lead one to presume that, for the time being, negotiators consider including sustainable development in their agenda as 'something' for the 'next time'. more
GMO Update: WTO Biotech Case, ISAAA, EU, APEC	The Chair of the WTO dispute panel considering the case brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against the alleged EU moratorium on the approval of new biotech products announced on 3 January that the panel would not distribute its interim preliminary report to the parties to the dispute before early February 2006. The report had been expected on 5 January. Some trade sources speculated that this, the most recent in a series of delays in the delivery of the report (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 14 October 2005), could simply be a result of delays in the legal translation of the hundreds of pages of complex analysis because of the more immediate demands placed on WTO staff by the December Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. more

In Brief

Hong Kong Ministerial Adopts Declaration, Talks To Continue CITES Stops Trade In Wild Caviar To Save Sturgeon Greenpeace: WTO "Chills" Measures To Conserve Forests Modest Cuts To EU Fish Quotas Enough to Save Cod? Countries Sign Eleventh Hour Deal On Climate Change Governments Speed Up Phase-out Of Ozone-Depleting Substances Six Nations Count On Technology To Fix The Climate State Of The World Report 2006 Puts Spotlight On China And India

Events    &   Resources
Events	23 January, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT AND GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE. This seminar, coordinated by the Institute for Environmental Studies (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE), will address the issue of how multilateral agreements can be designed to foster sustainable development while also promoting and providing protection for investment. in the context of the Concerted Action on Trade and Environment (CAT&E). For further informaiton contact Kyla Tienhaara, tel: (+31) 20-598-8257; e-mail: kyla.tienhaara@ivm.falw.vn.nl:
	More Events...
Resources	AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES, TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. By Thomas Lines (International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED) and ICTSD, December 2005). The crisis in agricultural commodities is closely linked to issues of poverty and environmental degradation. Dealing with entrenched rural poverty and major impacts from agriculture on ecosystem viability requires a new look at how commodity markets succeed or fail. There is a need for better understanding of how commodity markets work and how policy makers and businesses can intervene to introduce fairness, justice and sustainability into these markets. This challenging context provides the background for this book, which brings together an edited selection of papers prepared for two strategic dialogues on commodities, trade and sustainable development, jointly convened by IIED and the ICTSD.
	More Resources...
ISSN 1682-0843