Bridges Africa

Trade officials from intergovernmental organisations and various missions weighed in on Wednesday 28 February regarding the WTO’s future in light of the various multi-country initiatives that emerged at the organisation’s ministerial conference last December. They also weighed what these could mean...

Disciplining agricultural protectionism has long been a challenge for trade negotiators. The Doha Round stumbled over it and the impasse over public stockholding continues. Should the WTO just give up on agriculture? In the early 2000s, subsidies and trade barriers in rich countries were helping...

WTO negotiators concluded another cluster of talks on fisheries subsidy disciplines last week, with one more round to go before heading to the organisation’s ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 13-17 November meet at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters produced a set of “ working...

The past weeks have seen WTO negotiators engage in intensive debate on how and whether to advance with an outcome on domestic regulation in services in time for the organisation’s eleventh ministerial conference (MC11), slated for 10-13 December in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A group of 25 WTO members...

WTO negotiators now have an integrated text to consider in their efforts to craft global trade rules that would discipline harmful fisheries subsidies, in a development aimed at moving the talks into the next stage. The new text, prepared as an informal “non-paper,” was put together by various WTO...

Trade ministers from nearly 40 WTO members concluded a two-day series of meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, this week, with Director-General Roberto Azevêdo stating afterwards that much work remains to ensure that the upcoming ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leads to tangible...

The Kenyan ambassador who chairs the WTO’s negotiations on agriculture has issued a new informal paper mapping the “state of play” in the talks ahead of a ministerial-level meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, in early October. Trade sources told Bridges that the Marrakesh meeting will be key in...

Trade negotiators continued their work last week towards crafting new WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies, examining two proposals and looking at options regarding the use of dispute settlement rules and notification obligations in a future deal. The meetings, held at the WTO’s Geneva...

The Cairns Group of agricultural exporting countries has called for action on farm trade issues for the WTO’s upcoming ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this December, tabling an informal paper that notes “overwhelming” support for an outcome on agricultural domestic support. The...