EU, Latin Americans Call Truce in Long-Running Banana War

Volume

13,

Number

43

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16 December 2009

EU, Latin Americans Call Truce in Long-Running Banana War

16 December 2009

The European Union and a group of Latin American countries have reached an agreement to end tensions over the EU's tariffs on banana imports, bringing to a close the longest international trade dispute in memory. At issue is the EU's current banana import regime, which allows 775,000 tonnes of the...

Copenhagen Update: Draft Climate Texts Move toward Final Decision

16 December 2009

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the chair of the ad-hoc working group for long-term cooperative action (LCA) gavelled a decision to conclude work on texts that are a basis for a new global accord on climate change, which parties have been negotiating over the last two years. The texts will...

NAMA Talks Make Progress on NTBs

16 December 2009

WTO members took an "important step" forward in talks on preventing non-tariff measures such as health and safety standards from unduly restricting trade in manufactured goods, the chair of the Doha Round negotiating committee on industrial products said last week. Luzius Wasescha, the Swiss...

UNITAID Approves Patent Pool for AIDS Drugs

16 December 2009

The executive board of the drug-purchasing facility UNITAID has given a green light to the implementation of a patent pool meant to make critical AIDS drugs more widely available, and at lower prices, in the developing world. The board announced on 14 December that UNITAID will provide US$ 4...

Obama Says US Ready to Join Asia-Pacific Trade Talks

16 December 2009

The administration of US President Barack Obama notified Congress on Monday that it intends to negotiate a free trade agreement with a group of nations in the Asia-Pacific. It is the first bold trade-opening move of the Obama presidency. In letters to two prominent members of the US Congress dated...

WIPO Traditional Knowledge Committee Pushes Toward Text-Based Talks

16 December 2009

After hard-fought negotiations during informal talks from 7 to 11 December, the committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization that deals with traditional knowledge came close to agreement on how its text-based negotiations should proceed. Under the guidance of newly elected chair Juan...

Countries Exchange Technical Notes on SSM

16 December 2009

At an informal small-group meeting last Thursday convened by the chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations, trade negotiators exchanged 'technical notes' simulating how the proposed special safeguard mechanism could work in practice. The special safeguard mechanism, widely known as the SSM, is...

Events

16 December 2009

7-18 December, Copenhagen, Denmark. TRADE AND CLIMATE CHANGE EVENTS IN COPENHAGEN. This series of events, organised by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), are taking place on the sidelines of the official negotiations at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties...

Resources

16 December 2009

THE UNRELENTING PRESSURE OF PROTECTIONISM: THE 3RD GTA REPORT. By Simon Evenett. Global Trade Alert, 7 December 2009. At a time when more commentators are becoming cautiously optimistic about the prospects for 2010, this report from Global Trade Alert presents the latest data on the protectionist...