South Centre provides training at the ILO-organized "Trade Union Training on International Trade Agreements, Development and Trade Union Agenda"

Ermias Biadgleng, Programme Officer, South Centre acted as a trainer for sessions on Investment: TRIMS and Bilateral Investment Provisions and on Intellectual Property: TRIPS and IP provisions at the "Trade Union Training on International Trade Agreements, Development and Trade Union Agenda" organized by the International Training Centre of the ILO at Turin, Italy on 31 October 2007.

Emerging Powers and their role in Global Economic Governance: Impetus for Reform

Vice Yu, Coordinator, Global Governance for Development Progamme, South Centre participated in the roundtable on "The potential for South-South cooperation on influencing the emerging global economic governance architecture" organized by the South African Institute of International Affairs on 30 October 2007 in Johannesburg as a part of the conference on Global Economic Governance.

While there is widespread recognition of the need for reform, the experience of the last few years indicates that this will be a difficult process that holds many political minefields for countries. How can emerging powers and other developing states cooperate on moving the reform agenda forward? How can informal coalitions or groupings assist in this regard? What contribution can emerging powers make as responsible new actors in global governance institutions? These thoughts formed the basis of this roundtable session. More information at:
http://www.saiia.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1174

South Centre organizes follow-up Informal Meeting on Trade in Services

South Centre organized a follow-up meeting today (30 October 2007) to enable developing countries prepare for the process that the Chair of the Council for Trade in Services is undertaking to develop a text on services.

South Centre organizes side-event to the UN High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development in New York

On Monday, 22 October 2007, the South Centre, together with the Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the UN in New York, the UN Financing for Development Office (UNFFDO), and the Centre for International Cooperation in Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), held a side-event to the UN High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development that took place on 23-24 October 2007 at UN Headquarters in New York.

The side-event titled "Selected Issues on Financing for Development: South-North Capital Flows and Innovative Sources of Financing." Speakers included Prof. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre; Mr. Vicente Paolo Yu, Programme Coordinator for Global Governance at the South Centre; Mr. Sergio Marelli of CIDSE; and HE Ambassador Monsignor Celestino Migliori, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the UN in New York. The Chairman of the Panel was Mr. Aldo Caliari of the Center of Concern. The side-event was attended by representatives from developing country delegations and some civil society organizations.

Making Patent Policy Work for Development: Lessons from the SWISS

South Centre organized its Fourth South Innovation Perspectives Seminar on 24 October at Palais des Nations, Geneva.

Dr. Nikolaus Thumm, Senior Economic Counsellor, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Berne was the main speaker at this event and delivered his keynote presentation on "Making Patent Policy Work for Development: Lessons from the SWISS."

Prof. Dominique Foray, Chair of Economics of Innovation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne and Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor, Chinese permanent mission to the WTO provided commentary remarks to the presentation made by Dr. Thumm.

According to Dr. Thumm, patents are the second best solution since the first best option of "markets" does not work well. Four policy conclusions emerged from his presentation (i) To ensure a reasonable level of intellectual property protection is crucial. (ii) Only at a certain threshold of development does a patent system begin to spur innovation. (iii) The optimal level of IP protection varies- there is a different optimum for different countries and industries. (iv) The importance is to determine where we are actually.

The Seminar was chaired by Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist and Acting Coordinator, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre and was attended by members from the civil society, UN Agencies and delegates from the Missions.

The Fifth South Innovation Perspectives Seminar will be organized on 5 December at Palais des Nations and Dr. Carloyn Deere will deliver the keynote presentation.

South Centre organizes informal meeting on Trade in Services

On 24 October, South Centre organized an informal meeting for delegates on Trade in Services. Over 15 delegates participated in the meeting.

South Centre organizes NGO meeting on Trade in Agriculture

On 23 October, South Centre organized an informal meeting on Trade in Agriculture with focus on Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SP/SSM). Over 40 colleagues including civil society members from Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia and delegates from Missions in Geneva participated in this meeting.

South Centre organizes informal meeting in advance of TRIPS Council

There is a new momentum for the conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations. If negotiations restart, it is crucial that developing countries make progress on issues related to TRIPS Agreement where they are demandeurs and especially on the proposal for disclosure requirement. In this context, South Centre organized an informal meeting on 22 October to ensure that developing countries pose a coordinated stance on the issue. Over 25 delegates participated in this meeting.

The East African (Kenya): South Centre- Traps Africa must avoid in talks with EU

The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, set for this December, will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union (EU) and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Specifically, negotiations on trade in services under the EPAs have important development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, states Joy Kategekwa, Programme Officer at South Centre in her article "Traps Africa must avoid in talks with EU" published in the The East African (Kenya) newspaper.

The countries that constitute the ESA negotiating group are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, many of which are also the poorest and least developed in the world. For them, ensuring universal access to basic services such as health, education, sanitation, and water, as opposed to exporting services — which is the rationale behind a free trade agreement, is the real priority, and challenge.

Read complete article at: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/2110200724.htm

South Centre in News: Developing Countries Get Perspective On IP And Enforcement

South Centre organized symposium "Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective" on 9 October 2007 gets a note in the IP-Watch.

There is more to the story of enforcing intellectual property rights than one typically reads in the media, and developing country governments should defend themselves against unfair enforcement practices, officials and activists said recently.

Speakers gave their views at a 9 October event of the intergovernmental South Centre entitled, Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective. Viviana Muñoz Tellez, programme officer in the South Centre’s Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, outlined organisations that are working on IP rights enforcement, including the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Trade Organization, Interpol, World Customs Organisation, and some governments through bilateral trade agreements.

Read the complete note at:
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=792&res=1280&print=0

South Centre Event: South-North Capital Flows and the search for Innovative Sources of Finance (22 October)

South Centre in partnership with CIDSE/Centre of Concern is organizing an invitation-only panel event in New York on 22 October 2007 on South-North Capital Flows and the search for Innovative Sources of Finance. The Event seeks to present and discuss some ideas with developing country delegations working on Financing for Development issues in the context of the 2008 Review Conference for the Monterrey Consensus.

The results of policy research currently being undertaken by the co-organizers will be discussed with developing country delegations, and the Event will highlight some topical issues that might be relevant and of use to developing country delegations in the context of their preparations for the 2008 Review Conference and the 23-24 October 2007 High Level Dialogue on Financing for Development.

More information at:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Panel_Event_UNFFD.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd//Events/2007_HLD_CalendarSideEvents.pdf

Multilateral Environmental Agreements and WTO

Mr. Vicente Yu, Coordinator- Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre recently published an article on the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA)-WTO relationship. According to Mr. Yu, the desire to clarify the MEA-WTO relationship is not a new one. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 and the Uruguay Round trade negotiations from 1986 to 1994 sought to clarify the relationship between MEA trade measures and the rules of the multilateral trading system.

The articles appears as a chapter (Chapter 13) in the IISD-ICTSD-RING Trade and Environment Resource Book which was launched on 4 October 2007.

Access the publication at http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/trade_and_env.pdf

ACP Legal Experts Meeting on the legal and institutional implications of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)

Darlan Martí, Programme Officer, South Centre participated in the ACP Legal Experts Meeting on the legal and institutional implications of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) held in Brussels on 10-11 October 2007.

The meeting was attended by representatives of each of the 6 ACP EPA regions (CARIFORUM, PIFS, SADC, CEMAC, COMESA and EAC, UEMOA, ECOWAS and Mauritania). In addition, permanent representatives of ACP missions in Brussels attended the meeting, as well as representatives from African Union, ECDPM, OIF, South Centre, and UNCTAD.

The South and Sustainable Development: South Centre participates in EcoLomics International Roundtable

Vice Yu, Coordinator - Global Governance for Development Programme, was a panelist at the EcoLomics International Roundtable on “Brundtland Report plus 20, EcoLomics International plus 5 : Quo vadis Sustainable Development?”

According to Mr. Yu, the development of developing countries underpins the very concept of sustainable development, with its three pillars of environmental protection, poverty eradication, and the elimination of unsustainable production and consumption patterns. In trying to achieve sustainable development, the global community will need to understand that developing countries are not going to give up on their right to development. This fact should be clearly recognized.

He stated that the failure of the current global system, and the role played by developed countries due to their own economic and political policies in such failure, underlies the deep skepticism displayed by developing countries and the lack of credibility that developed countries have among many developing countries over initiatives backed or pushed by developed countries relating to sustainable development and reforms of global environmental institutions.

The roundtable was organized by the University of Geneva on 18 October 2007.

South Centre participates in Workshop on "Strategies to Implement the WIPO Development Agenda"

Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist and Acting Coordinator, IAKP, South Centre, was a panelist at the Workshop on "Strategies to Implement the WIPO Development Agenda" during the EDGE Annual Conference on 15 Oct 2007 in Vancouver, Canada.

Dr. Li offered interdisciplinary perspectives on how to implement WIPO Development Agenda. She provided an analysis of the obstacles from both international and national level: (i) At the international level, poor governance of WIPO, disconnection between Geneva-based delegate and capitals, lack of empirical study. (ii) At the national level, institutional, conceptual and methodological obstacles potentially impede the implementation of WIPO development agenda.

Background of the workshop: On 28 Sep 2007, the members of the WIPO formally adopted a Development Agenda. The General Assembly accepted the 45 recommendations made in June of this year by the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to the WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA). WIPO members agreed to immediately implement 19 of the 45 recommendations, which were seen to not require additional human or financial resources.

South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 2, 16 October 2007) out

The South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 2, 16 October 2007) produced by South Centre is out. This issue includes the following analysis and commentaries and a guest editorial by Ambassador Ma Yuzen (China).

• Strategies to Implement the WIPO Development Agenda
• Trade in Services in the SADC region: considerations in the EPAs
• Climate Change and Indonesia
• From Stockholm and Rio to Bali: Addressing Climate Change via Kyoto or Montreal?
  

The South Bulletin will continue to provide critical assessments of the new challenges facing the developing countries, and appraisals of the variety of negotiations in which they are engaged on a fortnightly basis. It is hoped that our constituents will appreciate these efforts, and will continue to provide critical support to the South Centre.

South Centre Digital TV: Patent Regime under TRIPS

Sudip Chaudhuri, Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta, India provides an insightful commentary on Patent Regime under the TRIPS Agreement. This commentary was recorded during the visit of Dr. Chaudhuri to the South Centre.

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Upcoming Seminar: Fourth South Innovation Perspectives Series (24 October)

The South Centre Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme cordially invites you to the Fourth South Innovation Perspectives Series Seminar on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 at Palais des Nations, Room IX (Old building, 3rd Floor) from 3 pm to 5 pm.

This series is on "Making Patent Policy Work for Development: Lessons from the Swiss Experience." The keynote speaker is Dr. Nikolaus Thumm, Senior Economic Counsellor, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Berne

The Commentators are Prof. Dominique Foray, Chair of Economics of Innovation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne and Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor, Chinese permanent mission to the WTO.

Full information about the seminar and registration procedures are available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/SouthInnovationPerspectives_seminars.htm

Role of Innovation and Technical Change in Harnessing Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre was a panelist at the OECD organized forum on the above issue at the WTO Public Forum 2007. The other panel members included Mr. Dirk Pilat, Head of the Sceince and Technology Policy Division of the OECD and H.E. Mr. Mario Matus, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO. The audio of the commentary made by Dr. Xuan Li is available below.

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Aid for Trade: Twenty lessons from existing aid schemes

South Centre in its latest publication "Aid for Trade: Twenty lessons from existing aid schemes" jointly with ECDPM, reviews 3 major existing mechanisms of trade-related assistance and provides useful lessons for policymakers in the South and the North.

As WTO Members and the development community prepare to undertake a global review of the WTO Aid for Trade Initiative in mid-November, this study enumerates failures and achievements in the delivery of trade-related aid. First, these lessons are informed by an exploration of the European Commission (EC) trade-related assistance (TRA), particularly the European Development Fund (EDF) as a significant example of regional and bilateral schemes. Second, this study reviews the multi-agency Integrated Framework (IF) for Least Developed Countries. Finally, the paper describes the main achievements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Trade Integration Mechanism (TIM).

The study is authored by Darlan Marti, Programme Officer, South Centre and Francesco Rampa and appears as ECDPM Discussion Paper No 80.

9th Annual SALISES Conference: Honouring Norman Girvan

The 9th Annual Conference of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) is being organized this year in honour of Dr. Norman Girvan. Dr. Girvan is Member of the Board of South Centre.

"Reinventing the Political Economy Tradition of the Caribbean" is the theme of the conference scheduled to take place on March 26–28, 2008. Through the Conference SALISES proposes to take the work of Norman Girvan and his generation of intellectual thinkers as a point of departure for rethinking the political economy of the Caribbean. Norman Girvan holds pride of place because of the breadth and originality of his work, as well as his association with SALISES. He remains one of a small group of academics from that period who continue an intellectual engagement with the current international paradigm, seeking to find spaces for the articulation of the development challenges of countries of the South, particularly the Caribbean region and its small states. Read full text

African Countries should move slowly in Service Trade Talks with EU

OCTOBER 2007 (IPS) - The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, set for this December, will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Specifically, negotiations on trade in services under the EPAs have important development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, writes Joy Kategekwa, programme officer for trade in services at the South Centre's Trade for Development Programme.

In this article, the author writes that the EU is seeking "most favoured nation" status for its service suppliers in the ESA region, which would not only give EU companies unlimited access to the ESA market on terms similar to those enjoyed by ESA countries, in the context of their various regional integration initiatives, but also automatic access to the treatment that ESA countries give to all other trading partners, with whom they have services economic integration agreements, or with whom, the ESA process of liberalisation has led to some form of services liberalisation.

In making national treatment commitments for the EU, ESA countries lose the ability to retain any measures that favor local/ESA service suppliers, over EU ones. In sum, the outcome of the EPA on services, along the lines proposed by the EU,would bar ESA countries from implementing certain policy instruments or regulations that could increase the participation of local services suppliers particularly in the context of intra-regional trade.

More information: http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=39591

South FACE: International Symposium on Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective

IP enforcement is an issue of global importance and is something in which developing countries have invested significant administrative and judicial resources. This was the message emerging from the keynote address given by H.E SUN Zhenyu (Ambassador of People's Republic of China) and H.E Dr. Makarim Wibisono (Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia) at the International Symposium on IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective. The symposium was organized by the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre at Palais des Nation on 9 October 2007. For Agenda and list of speakers visit:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Int_Symposium_IP_Enforcement.htm

The South FACE produced for the "International Symposium on Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective" is now available!

View it here: http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face_IAKP_9Oct.pdf

Select videos from the event will also be made available here. Check back for further updates!

Click To Play: IP Enforcement Flexibilities and Obligations in the TRIPS Agreement, Mr. Roger Kampf, Cousellor, WTO

South FACE 1 and 2: Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South

View the South FACE produced for the panel event "Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South" organized by the South Centre at the WTO Public Forum 2007 available at:

• Morning Part: http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-WTO-GGDP-1.pdfWTO-GGDP-1.pdf
• Afternoon Part: http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-WTO-GGDP-2.pdf

The South FACE captures the sound bytes from the eminent speakers: Dr. Nagesh Kuman (Director-General, RIS), H.E Dr. A.M Maruping (Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator), Dr. Carolyn Deere (Global Trade Governance Project, Oxford University) and Dr. Manfried Elsig (World Trade Institute, University of Berne) who spoke in the panel in the monring.

(Top Picture: H.E Dr. A.M Maruping, Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator. Picture on the Right: H.E. Mr. Faizal Ismail, NAMA 11 Coordinator, South Africa).

The afternoon panel included among others: H.E. Mr. Faizal Ismail (NAMA 11 Coordinator, South Africa) and Mr. Mayur Patel (Global Trade Governance Project, Oxford University).

Vice Yu, Coordinator of Global Governance for Development Programme, moderated the panel discussion.

South Centre Bids Farewell to Ambassador Ma Yuzhen

South Centre bids farewell to Ambassador Ma Yuzhen who is relinquishing his position as Board Member of the South Centre. Mr. Ma served in this capacity for the last six years. The Chairman Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the Members of the Board, and the staff of the South Centre deeply appreciate the guidance and support Mr. Ma has provided to the Centre. Mr Ma has been a strong proponent of South-South cooperation which contributed to steady development of the South Centre over the years.

Mr. Ma is a well-known senior diplomat in China. He has spent half of his career dealing with foreign affairs-related media affairs, a task requiring a comprehensive knowledge of international affairs and China’s foreign policy. Being one of the officers in charge of foreign affairs-related media affairs during the period of the late leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai - as Deputy Director of Information, Department of Foreign Ministry (1969-1980) - he was personally involved in the press arrangements for such important events as the 1972 visit to China of the then U.S. President Nixon. Mr. Ma was Director-General of the Information Department and concurrently Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984-1988). He served as Senior Advisor on Foreign Policy to Chinese leaders and as their spokesman.

South Centre organizes the Second South Intellectual Platform Workshop

Several eminent intellectuals and practioners from the South gathered under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania at Chateau de Bossey, Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland on 6 October 2007 to take stock of current and emerging issues in which developing countries are stakeholders.

The workshop, second in the South Intellectual Platform series, identified priority areas where the strength of the South lies collectively and where the South needs to assume leadership. Those present, included Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Ambassador Ma Yuzen, Norman Girvan, Deepak Nayyar, Abdul Minty, Bagher Asadi, Carlos Lopez, Martin Khor and Yash Tandon.

The South Intellectual Platform is an initiative of the South Centre to reflect on the new challenges for the South which have emerged since the work of the South Commission 15 years later. The South Intellectual Platform helds its first workshop in Geneva in 2006. More details about this initiative is available at: http://www.southcentre.org/sip/sipindex.html

Reform of the World Bank Governance Structures

South Centre has released its latest Analytical Note discussing potential governance reforms in the World Bank’s governance structures with an understanding that some reforms become more or less imperative depending on the direction of the discussions around the long-term strategic direction of the Bank.

The note concludes that reforms in the governance structures of the World Bank and other global governance institutions are needed if they are to be better able to reflect and respond to the development needs and priorities of developing countries.

South FACE: Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South

View the South FACE produced for the event "Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South" organized by the South Centre at the WTO Public Forum 2007 available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-WTO-GGDP-1.pdf

The South FACE captures the sound bytes from the eminent speakers at the Panel in the morning which included: Dr. Nagesh Kuman (Director-General, RIS), H.E Dr. A.M Maruping (Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator), Dr. Carolyn Deere (Global Trade Governance Project, Oxford University) and Dr. Manfried Elsig (World Trade Institute, University of Berne).

(Picture: H.E Dr. A.M Maruping, Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator)

Vice Yu, Coordinator of Global Governance for Development Programme, moderated the panel discussion.

South Centre and OECD Forum on Role of Innovation and Technical Change in Harnessing Globalisation: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist & Acting Coordinator, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre is a panelist at the OECD organized forum on "The Role of Innovation and Technical Change in Harnessing Globalisation: Challenges and Opportunities."
The Forum is being organized at the annual WTO Public Forum, Geneva, 5 October 2007 under the heading: How Can the WTO Help Harness Globalisation?

Other panel members include: Mr. Dirk Pilat - Head of the Sceince and Technology Policy Division of the OECD, H.E. Mr. Mario Matus - Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO, and Mr. Andreas Ebert - Regional Technology Officer, European Union, Microsoft.

Mr. Warren Giles, Journalist, Bloomberg News will be moderating the forum.

IPS/SouthCentre: Biofuels - No Silver Bullet Against Fossil Fuels

The Inter Press Service published a column piece today on Biofuels authored by Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre.

According to Mr. Yu, biofuels should be seen as a part of a broader strategy of diversifying the energy mix that allows society to shift to more sustainable energy sources with minimal economic and social disruption. It is crucial that biofuel production does not compete directly with food production, especially in developing countries, and that the latter's poor not be made to vie for food with the livestock and automobiles of those in developed countries. More research, development, and investment needs to be made in other climate-friendly energy alternatives (i.e. biogas, solar, wind, tidal, water, geothermal, hydrogen), for power generation, transportation, and daily consumer use, to expand the use of these alternatives as future replacements for fossil fuels.

For more information, go to: http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=39520

Increased IP protection can have negative impact on Innovation and Knowledge Creation

Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist and Acting Coordinator, Innovation and Access to Knowledge, South Centre expressed her concerns on increasing standards of IP protection and the negative implications it can have on the process of innovation and knowledge creation. Dr. Li shared this view as a panelist on the "Review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010" convened by the UNCTAD on 4 October.

Dr. Li cited clear examples from TRIPS and other regional agreements and emphasised that the boundaries and objectives of innovation policy must be very clear. This would have a tremendous impact, especially on the flexibilities which LDCs would enjoy and the implication on knowledge creation.

She recommended that public interest theory must be considered a priority. This means appropriate measures must be taken at the level of TRIPS, WIPO and the World Customs Organisation. At the national level it will require striking a balance on different policy issues, namely between IP and competition.

The Panel was organized by UNCTAD under its ongoing Trade and Development Board Session.

Eighth Meeting of the Council of Representatives of South Centre Convenes in Geneva

The Eighth Meeting of the Council of Representatives of South Centre convened in Geneva on 4 October 2007.

The meeting of the Council followed the Nineteenth meeting of the Members of the Board of the South Centre under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania.

South Centre to participate in UNCTAD Trade and Development Board Session

Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre will be a panelist at the event under the Agenda item 4 of the UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board, Fifty-Fourth Session. The Agenda item 4 focuses on "Review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010."

The event will be held on 4 October, Room XXVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva. Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD will be providing the opening remarks.

Informal Meeting on Trade in Services organized by South Centre

On Thursday 27th September 2007, the South Centre organised an informal meeting of developing country services trade negotiators-with the aim of providing a forum for these countries to exchange ideas and thoughts in preparation for the special session of the Council for Trade in Services that was scheduled for Friday 28th September 2007.

The services negotiations are at a critical phase, wherein it it is thought by a large number of Members, particularly developed countries, that there is need to re-energise these negotiaitions and raise the profile so as to match ambition in negotiations on trade in industrial products and agriculture. As such, it has been proposed that the Chair of the Services Council prepares a text along similar lines as has been in NAMA and agriculture. While not totally opposed to the idea of the chair taking a more proactove role in these negotiations, developing countries were very cautious that this mandate does not be used in any way that disturbs the delicate flexibility in Annex C to the Hong Kong Declaration. It was thought that a text containing dates for the submission of revised and final offers, as well as one that takes stock of where negotiations are on the various aspects of Annex C was possibly useful.

We are yet to see where this process goes. What is clear though is that the intricacies of services including the negotiating architecture inherent in progressive liberalisation, the Guidelines and procedures for services negotiations and Annex C, all provide a delicate balance signaling the non-applicability of formula-like approoaches in services.

South Centre to organize International Symposium on Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective

The South Centre is organizing an invitation-only International Symposium on IP Enforcement to provide developing country representatives a forum to discuss with North and South stakeholders the policy challenges that developing countries face on IP enforcement and how to integrate development concerns in the international IP enforcement agenda.

Confirmed Speakers include: Prof. Carlos Correa, University of Buenos Aires and Special Advisor, South Centre; Prof. Joshua Sarnoff, American University, Washington; Mr. Roger Kampf, Counsellor, WTO Secretariat; Mr. Pedro Roffe, Senior Fellow, ICTSD; Mr. Fernando Piérola, Counsel, Advisory Centre on WTO Law; Mr. Zhao Meisheng, State Intellectual Property Office, China; Mr. Guilherme Patriota, Permanent Mission of Brazil to WTO/WIPO; Mr. CHEN Yusong, Permanent Mission of China to the WTO, Ms. Sangeeta Shashikant, Third World Network. The event will be held on 9 October, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

For more details: http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Int_Symposium_IP_Enforcement.htm

The Event will be covered by the South FACE and the South Centre Digital TV.

South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights Launched

The South Bulletin is back. South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights has a new look and a new format that puts greater emphasis on sharing Knowledge that Matters for the South. This is an outcome of ideas shared by several colleagues, including officials from Member Countries of South Centre in Geneva, New York, Brussels and in the Capitals who would like the Bulletin to be interactive. The new Bulletin will enable cross-sharing of experiences and fulfill specific knowledge needs on current and emerging issues in which developing countries are stakeholders.

Read this issue online at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southbulletin/1-1-oct-07.pdf

Demystifying Trade in Services: A Strategic Guide for ACP EPA Negotiators

Trade in services has been portrayed as one of the complicated areas in the EPA negotiations. As ACP countries engage in the EPA services negotiations, understanding the rules, principles and concepts that govern multilateral trade, and economic integration Agreements in services, becomes central to their effective participation. This Fact Sheet no. 5 prepared by Trade for Development Programme of the South Centre explains, in a simple manner, the above-mentioned rules, principles, and concepts. It is hoped that this guide will be a useful contribution to the negotiators, in securing an outcome that is in line with ACP development objectives.

Download the Fact Sheet from http://www.southcentre.org/publications/AnalyticalNotes/Other/2007Oct_EPA_Fact_Sheet_No5.pdf

Scenarios for the Future: WIPO Development Agenda

Prof. Pedro Paranagua from the Centre for Technology and Society (CTS) at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), School of Law - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil shares his foresight on the scenarios for the future of the WIPO Development Agenda. FGV-Rio works closely with the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP) of the South Centre.

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