Archive - 2006

About 100 professional economists have called on rich countries to kick-start the stalled world trade talks by opening up their food markets.

The top U.S. trade negotiator vowed to push for a breakthrough in negotiations at the World Trade Organization within the next six months so that lawmakers can be convinced to extend trade negotiating authority.

The UN Trade and Development Board's annual session started today with UNCTAD Secretary-General Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi giving his opening statement as scheduled.

The suspension of the World Trade Organisation's Doha negotiations should not lower the expectations for the development dimension of the Doha Round.

A brief outline of how he intends to undertake some internal reforms in UNCTAD was given by its Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi at the policy dialogue of UNCTAD's Mid-Term Review on 4 October.

The World Trade Organisation's Doha negotiations should resume as soon as possible, and on the basis of the development mandate and principle so that the developing countries will really benefit, according to many developing countries individually or through their groupings.

Although there is a lot of talk about the need for completion of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round, the content of the Round's outcome is just as important and there should be emphasis on this content instead as talk of a Development Round has been rhetorical so far, according to India's Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.

An interesting debate took place at the Trade and Development Board (TDB) of UNCTAD on the question of "policy space", on the imbalances of existing multilateral rules in some areas and their absence in others, and the impact of this on developing countries' ability to formulate national development policies.

Proposals for better United Nations system-wide coherence should start by addressing the need for coordinated economic global policy-making, which is lagging behind the problems caused by increasing interdependence.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab this week told members of the services industry that they are leaving too much of the lobbying for approval of trade agreements to agriculture groups, which are taking on that effort to an extent that is disproportionate to the importance of agriculture for the U.S. economy.