CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS: TECHNOLOGY, IP ISSUES ON THE TABLE	Climate change negotiators have started grappling with key issues in order to arrive at a new global climate agreement at the end of 2009. Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, more than a thousand negotiators and other participants gathered to agree on the concrete work programme for the next two years. more
WTO PANEL RULES AGAINST EU IMPORT BAN IN BEEF HORMONE CASE; BOTH SIDES CLAIM VICTORY	Both sides are claiming victory following the latest WTO ruling in one of the longest running disputes in the institution's history, which has pitted the US and Canada against the EU over trade in hormone-treated beef. more
MEMBERS REMAIN DIVIDED ON FISHERIES DRAFT TEXT	WTO Members remain divided on how to structure future multilateral rules on fisheries subsidy spending, notably on the conditions under which developing countries should be allowed to provide significant amounts of support to their fisheries sectors. more
GMO ROUNDUP: BENIN, KENYA LIMIT EXPOSURE TO GM CROPS, MEXICO MOVES TO TEST MAIZE VARIETIES, BRAZILIAN BIOFUEL PRODUCERS LOOK TO GM; FRENCH GM MAIZE BAN UPHELD	The government of Benin recently announced that it will renew a moratorium on the import, marketing and use of GM varieties for another five years. more

In Brief

EUROPEAN COMMISSION CONSIDERS TRADE SANCTIONS AGAINST CANADIAN SEAL IMPORTS BUSINESS AND BIODIVERSITY PROTECTORS CONVERGE

Events    &   Resources
Events	7 April, Reading, U.K.:ECO-INNOVATION WORKSHOP. The European Commission has recently highlighted bio-based products alongside other three other green areas - sustainable construction, recycling and renewable technologies - within its newly announced Lead Markets Initiative (LMI). The workshop will bring together a number of leading thinkers and practitioners to highlight experience related to bio-based innovation and biomimetics. Bio-Innovators will build on previous events on eco-innovation, sustainable building technologies, energy harvesting, low carbon and resourceful innovators. Internet: http://www.extra.rdg.ac.uk/eng/BIONIS/events.htm
	More Events...
Resources	THE LEGALITY OF PPMs UNDER THE GATT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE TRADE POLICY. By Jason Potts, IISD, 2008. Since the Tuna-Dolphin cases in the mid-'90s, the treatment of process and production methods (PPMs) under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and subsequently the World Trade Organization (WTO), has been a pivotal point of debate and controversy for environmentalists, policy-makers and industry alike. And while governments and other stakeholders have since openly recognized the importance of policy which takes into account the nature of the processing and production methods, a general myth on the illegality of PPM-based policies within the WTO has persisted. Following an examination of the alleged grounds for this conclusion, as well as recent decisions by the WTO Appellate Body, the paper concludes not only that there is no basis for the assumption that PPM-based policy is a priori illegal under the WTO, but also that the legality of any given measure is favoured by taking guidance from basic principles of sustainable development such as economic efficiency, science-based decision-making and international cooperation. Building from this observation, the paper concludes by outlining a series of targeted strategies for the design of WTO-compliant PPM policy. The book is available online at http://www.iisd.org/publications/pub.aspx?pno=950
	More Resources...
ISSN 1682-0843