EPA General Exceptions undermine WTO negotiations on commodities

Peter Lunenborg, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre, has his piece "EPA General Exceptions undermine WTO negotiations on commodities" published in the Trade Negotiations Insights. Volume 8, Number 2, March 2009.

The article is available from: http://ictsd.net/i/news/tni/42025/

Is there any Development Agenda left in the Doha Development Round?

On 5 December, the South Centre organised an invitation-only brainstorming discussion on the Development content of the Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation.

Leading the discussions were H.E. Mme Maria Nzomo, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Kenya to the WTO and Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre.

Some of questions of interest to developing countries were taken up during the presentations and subsequent discussions, namely: Is the idea of liberalization as the golden bullet to development still valid?, Is the Doha Round simply about technical coefficients and numbers or are there broader development issues at stake? Are the processes of the proposed mini-Ministerial democratic and transparent?

WTO Mini-Ministerial: Doha Collapse because of Failure to Deliver Development

Mini-ministerial meet of 30 countries in Geneva attempting to reach an accord on liberalising markets in agriculture and industrial goods to salvage the Doha trade round collapses on day nine.

The collapse of the Doha talks illustrated a clear lack of political will on the part of the developed countries to deliver on development. From the start, the developed countries were hearing but not actually listening to the development concerns the majority in the WTO have been voicing. This continued through the past week until it became untenable to bridge the differences.

Read the entire commentary available online (in English, French and Spanish) at:
http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=664&Itemid=1

Preparotory meeting for the WTO mini-ministerial

Prior to the beginning of the WTO mini-ministerial meeting on the modalities for the finalization of the Doha Round of negotiations, the South Centre organized a working lunch meeting on Tuesday 15 July 2008.

The objective of the meeting was to provide the South Centre's analysis of the revised agriculture text (including the proposals on the SSM) and the NAMA negotiations or text and also to look at the implications of the US Farm Bill in relation to the Doha mandate. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Aileen Kwa, Coordinator of the Trade for Development Programme, South Centre.

South Centre participates in the African Group Retreat on WTO Doha Negotiations

Ms. Luisa Rodriguez and Mr. Darlan F. Marti participated in the WTO African Group Seminar on Agriculture and NAMA modalities from 23-25 May 2008. The two programme officers with the Trade for Development Programme of the South Centre participated as speakers at several of the sessions of this seminar.

South Centre participates in retreat of African Negotiators

South Centre trade experts participated to a retreat of African negotiators regarding the WTO Agricultural and Industrial trade negotiations. The retreat was held on 16 and 17 February 2008 and was convened by Côte d'Ivoire on behalf of the African Group. It provided negotiators with an opportunity to discuss the revised draft modalities for Agriculture and NAMA presented on 8 February 2008.

Luisa A. Rodriguez, Programme Officer for Agricultural goods, and Darlan F. Martí, Programme Officer for Industrial trade, assisted negotiators in better understanding some of the technical elements in the draft modalities texts, contributing to enhancing African negotiators positions in the various topics covered in the modalities texts.

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

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.

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 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.

South Centre organizes Working Lunch on Agriculture

The Trade for Development Programme organized a Working Lunch on 18 September on WTO agriculture negotiations to enable developing country delegates to collectively exchange views on the consultations held by the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture between the 3rd and 14th of September and strategize for the next phase of this process.

TDP Staff presented briefly comments prepared by the South Centre to the latest Chairman’s proposed draft modalities and circulated on July 2007 and invited delegations to exchange views. Delegations noted that consultations were characterized by a constructive engagement but that although almost no convergence could be reported at this stage. Main concerns in relation with this process included transparency and lack of clarity in terms of the calendar and program of meetings during the next couple of months.

South Centre participates in Information sharing workshop with Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda

At the request of Uganda’s Minister of Tourism Trade and Industry through their Permanent Mission in Geneva, Joy Kategekwa the inhouse trade expert within South Centre, participated as a technical resource person in the national information sharing seminar with the Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda held from 13-16 August.

South Centre was asked to deal with trade in services and assess whether there are any benefits for Uganda in the WTO. In this context, Ms. Kategewka made a presentation on the GATS, general rules and principles, the positioning of Uganda in the GATS, its schedule of commitments and implications thereof, challenges faced in the negotiations, the potentiality of negotiations achieving an outcome that can deliver on the aspirations of Uganda’s services sector export strategy and some thoughts as to what can be done to achieve Uganda’s ambitions in these negotiations.

Some of the key questions posed in the area of services related to how Uganda can use the WTO to open markets for semi-skilled workers, how better information on the market specifics in key markets can be obtained, how Uganda can build capacity to supply services in niche sectors, and how flexibilities in the GATS relate to the EPAs?

Commentary: Scenarios in the Doha Round

Luisa Bernal, Head of Trade for Development Programme, South Centre provides a commentary on the various possible scenarios of the WTO Doha Round. This commentary was given at the informal meeting of NGOs organized by South Centre in the Julius Nyere Conference Room on this issue on 27 July 2007. Over 20 NGO representatives participated in this meeting and shared their views.

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