[Pirateninfo] BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 13 11 July, 2003

[Martin Sundermann]

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BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 13    11 July, 2003
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ECOSOC CALLS FOR END TO AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES

During the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) annual
meeting held in Geneva from 30 June to 25 July, ministers issued a
declaration urging rich countries to reduce and eliminate agricultural
subsidies to ease market access for products from developing countries.
Furthermore the declaration highlights the need for the implementation
of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the urgent need for WTO Members
to address, at Cancun, issues such as agricultural export subsidies,
domestic support and enhanced market access, as well as special and
differential treatment for developing countries. Speaking on 30 June at
the opening session of the meeting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said
commitments made at the 2001 WTO Ministerial meeting in Doha must now be
implemented. The challenge "is not to decide what to do, but rather,
simply, to do it," according to Annan. He called on countries to show
greater flexibility to meet the Millennium Development Goals drawn up at
the UN Millennium Summit. The Director General of IUCN, Achim Steiner
supported the decision of ECOSOC to promote an integrated approach to
rural development for poverty eradication and sustainable development.
In this respect he said: "A challenge remains in the need to link this
work with the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO. Without supportive
processes in the financing and trade agendas, sustainable development
will not be possible. We are at a critical moment in time to prove that
the good intentions reflected in the commitments made by countries are
put into practice and that ECOSOC can play a leading role in ensuring
that this happens."

"ECOSOC Calls For Abolition Of Agricultural Subsidies," UN NEWS CENTER,
2 July 2003; "Annan Urges Action on Rural Poverty," ENS, 1 July 2003;
"UN Chiefs Plead With Powers For Fairer Farm Trade," REUTERS, 30 June
2003; "The poverty development nexus," IUCN, 9 July 2003.



WTO MEMBERS STILL FAR APART ON AGRICULTURE 

At a 26-27 June and 1 July special (negotiating) session of the WTO
Committee on Agriculture (CoA), Members mainly focussed on discussing a
draft progress report prepared by CoA negotiations Chair Stuart
Harbinson to be submitted to the Trade Negotiations Committee (see 
BRIDGES Weekly, 3 July 2003,
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-07-03/story2.htm). Members such as the
EU, Switzerland, Norway, Japan and Barbados insisted that the modalities
currently on the table could not serve as a basis for the negotiations
and thus called for a substantially different text -- leaving open,
however, who should produce it. In particular Members cannot agree on
the approach to reduce and cut tariffs and did not accept the compromise
approach by Harbinson. 

Members also discussed the concept of special products (allowing
developing countries to make very modest tariff cuts on such products),
which is strongly supported by developing countries. While countries
such as Indonesia, India, China, and the Philippines demanded that there
should be no criteria and that developing countries should decide
themselves which products would be special products, Latin American
Cairns Group members, as well as many developed countries criticised
this approach. They argued that self-declaration would emphasise
protectionist tools, instead of tackling domestic support and export
subsidies in rich countries, and would hamper trade amongst Southern
countries themselves. Instead, these countries proposed that both the
special safeguard mechanism and special products should have agreed
criteria, and that they should be used as an incentive to liberalise. 

A final CoA negotiating session prior to Cancun is scheduled for 16-18
July.

For a more detailed account of the meeting see: BRIDGES Weekly Trade
News Digest, 10 July 2003,
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-07-10/story1.htm.

'Special Products: Thinking Through the Details', report by Oxford
Policy Management, downloadable at:
http://www.opml.co.uk/economic_policy/trade_policy/et787_spec_produ.html

ICTSD reporting; "Cairns Group members fault misleading reference to
'peace clause,' WTO REPORTER, 30 June 2003.


Coming up in the next four weeks 

7-15 July, Geneva, Switzerland: FIFTH SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL
COMMITTEE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND GENETIC RESOURCES, TRADITIONAL
KNOWLEDGE AND FOLKLORE. The meeting is organized by WIPO. For further
information contact the WIPO Secretariat; tel: (41 22) 338-9111;
Internet: http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/meetings/2003/igc/index_5.htm


12 July, Geneva, Switzerland: CASES AND VIEWS ON THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN IPRS, GENETIC RESOURCES AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE. At this
informal, off-the-record roundtable, organised by ICTSD four speakers
will present actual cases and give their views on the possible solutions
to the relationship between intellectual property rights, genetic
recourses and the protection of traditional knowledge. For further
information, contact: Marie Chamay, ICTSD; tel: (41 22) 917-8492; fax:
917-8093; email: mchamay at ictsd.ch.

16-18 July, Geneva, Switzerland: WTO SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON
AGRICULTURE. For further information, contact the WTO Information and
Media Relations Division, Geneva; tel: (41 22) 739-5007; fax: 739-5458;
email: enquiries at wto.org

16-18 July, Maastricht, Netherlands: SEMINAR ON CHALLENGES AND RISKS OF
GMOS - WHAT RISK ANALYSIS IS APPROPRIATE? This Seminar will present a
multinational framework, determining scope and restrictions for national
policies and border protection with regards to the options for future
policy making towards integrated agro-food systems. In particular the
seminar will focus on the relevant WTO-Agreements on Standard Setting,
Labelling Requirements and Intellectual Property Rights. Parallel
Multinational Agreements, such as the CBD, are presented and their
respective relation to WTO Agreements clarified. For further
information, contact Ruggero Lala, tel: (31 20) 620-0225; fax: 624-9368;
email: ruggero.lala at amsu.edu; Internet:
http://www.amsu.edu/courses/law/publ12003.htm 

12-15 August, Geneva, Switzerland: 13TH MEETING OF THE CITES PLANTS
COMMITTEE. The meeting is organized by the CITES Secretariat. For
further information contact: CITES Secretariat; tel: (41 22) 917-8139;
fax: 797-3417; email: cites at unep.ch; Internet:
http://www.cites.org/eng/cttee/plants/index.shtml

Other forthcoming events

5-7 September, Cancun, Mexico: 18TH SESSION OF THE GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY
FORUM: BIODIVERSITY, TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.  The meeting
just prior to the 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO will focus on:
the relationship between the TRIPs Agreement and the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD); Risk, precaution and biosecurity; and Trade
and sustainable livelihoods. For further information, contact: The GBF
Secretariat, Caroline Martinet; tel: (41 22) 999-0216; fax: 999-0025;
email: caroline.martinet at iucn.org; Internet: http://www.gbf.ch 
RESOURCES

If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you
would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or
review by the BRIDGES staff to Marianne Jacobsen, mjacobsen at ictsd.ch.

ECOLABELING: OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROGRESS TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY. By
Consumer's Choice International (2002). This paper assesses the value in
ecolabelling. It offers definitions and classifications of ecolabelling,
a World Bank perspective and a Green Procurement Action Plan. It
discusses the labelling of GM foods, issues surrounding tropical timbers
and sustainability and issues of Environmental Assessment and Life Cycle
Analysis. The report is available at:
http://www.consumerscouncil.org/policy/ecolabeling_0402.pdf

HARMONISATION OF THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT MECHANISMS OF THE MULTILATERAL
ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS AND THE WORLD TRADE AGREEMENTS. By Axel Bree
and Sebastian Jungnickel on behalf of in cooperation with CIEL on behalf
of the German Federal Environmental Agency (2003). The report addresses
a key issue in today's international environmental law debate - that of
the interplay between dispute settlement rules in Multilateral
Environmental Agreements (MEA) and in the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). 

GLOBALISATION, EQUITY, AND POVERTY: THE SOUTH ASIAN EXPERIENCE. By
Sisira Jayasuriya (Global Development Network, January 2002). This paper
reviews South Asia's recent performance in growth, poverty, and equity,
focusing particularly on India, and Sri Lanka. A brief historical
background is presented that traces the impact on South Asia of the
first phase of globalisation from the late 19th century through to the
first world war, and the impact of the economic and political changes
leading up to the second world war and independence. This is followed by
an analysis of the trends during the changing policy regimes with
particular emphasis on the experience of the liberalisation period. The
paper is available online at:
http://www.gdnet.org/pdf/Fourth_Annual_Conference/Parallels1/SouthAsia/j
ayasuriya_paper.pdf

STANDARDS AND GLOBAL TRADE: A VOICE FOR AFRICA. By the World Bank
(2003). The report says that firms must upgrade their facilities to meet
global standards, for example,  by investing in better processing,
cooling and storage. This in turn will require that African governments
continue to improve the climate for investment, for example, by reducing
corruption, cutting red tape, and ensuring the provision of critical
infrastructure, such as power, telecommunications and farm-to-market
roads. For more information see:
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1688
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