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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South Centre participates in OECD Forum on Ownership in Practice

Yash Tandon, the Executive Director of South Centre will be speaking at the OECD Forum on Ownership in Practice in Paris on September 27, 2007. He will be making a presentation at the opening session of the forum on "The two dimensions of ownership" on behalf of Dr. Norman Girvan, Board Member of the South Centre.

The OECD Global Forum on Development, of which this Workshop is a part, is an informal dialogue space for complex issues. Akey objective of the workshop is to discuss what ownership means in practice, ocusing on concrete examples from developing countries.

More information at: http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,3343,en_21571361_37824719_38977173_1_1_1_1,00.html

Priorities for the WIPO Assemblies 2007

The WIPO General Assembly : Thirty-Fourth (18th Ordinary) Session runs from September 25 to October 3, 2007. Ms. Viviana Munoz Tellez, Programme Officer, Innovations and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre provides an insight to the "Priorities for the WIPO Assemblies 2007" in her commentary recorded on the South Centre Digital TV.

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Working lunch meeting for WTO TRIPS Council on disclosure requirement

The South Centre organized a working lunch on TRIPS-related issues on 19 September for over forty WTO developing country members who are co-sponsors of the proposal to amend Article 29 of the TRIPS Agreement to include a mandatory disclosure requirement of the origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge claimed in patent applications.This working lunch is a follow up to a series of working lunches organised by the South Centre in 2006 and April 2007 to advance the proposal that was formally submitted to the WTO by a group of developing countries in May 2006.

During the working lunch co-sponsors of the amendment proposal shared information and discussed future scenarios and strategy. The next meeting of the TRIPS Council will be on 23-24 October.

South Centre participates in Roundtable on "Technical Analysis of Development Implications of Draft EPA Provisions"

Luisa Rodriguez, Trade for Development Programme, made a presentation at the Roundtable entitled “What’s on the table for development? A Technical analysis of development implications of draft EPA provisions”, held in Brussels on 13 September 2007.

The presentation made by Luisa Rodriguez assessed the content of the EPA texts on the basis of existing vulnerabilities of the agriculture sector in ACP countries. These vulnerabilities include: supply side constraints; dependency on a limited number of commodities, markets and preferential market access; increased frequency and extent of import surges. She made specific recommendations concerning: the process leading to regional selection of Sensitive Products, technical and financial needs to reinforce and develop ACP countries’ capacities with regards to health and sanitary standards and an agricultural safeguard mechanism.

This event was jointly organized by APRODEV and Christian Aid to help ACP and EU officials to better understand the development implications of EPA texts, in order to enable them to make a knowledgeable assessment of whether these texts will deliver the development ambitions of Cotonou or what needs to change before decisions on signing are made in December. Representatives of the EU member states, ACP representatives in Brussels and civil society organizations and think tanks participated in this event.

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.