<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4522.1800" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff><FONT size=2>
<DIV>-----------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>BRIDGES
Trade BioRes, Vol. 3 No. 13 11 July,
2003<BR>------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR><FONT
size=3>ECOSOC CALLS FOR END TO AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES<BR><BR>During the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) annual<BR>meeting held in Geneva
from 30 June to 25 July, ministers issued a<BR>declaration urging rich countries
to reduce and eliminate agricultural<BR>subsidies to ease market access for
products from developing countries.<BR>Furthermore the declaration highlights
the need for the implementation<BR>of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the
urgent need for WTO Members<BR>to address, at Cancun, issues such as
agricultural export subsidies,<BR>domestic support and enhanced market access,
as well as special and<BR>differential treatment for developing countries.
Speaking on 30 June at<BR>the opening session of the meeting UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said<BR>commitments made at the 2001 WTO
Ministerial meeting in Doha must now be<BR>implemented. The challenge "is not to
decide what to do, but rather,<BR>simply, to do it," according to Annan. He
called on countries to show<BR>greater flexibility to meet the Millennium
Development Goals drawn up at<BR>the UN Millennium Summit. The Director General
of IUCN, Achim Steiner<BR>supported the decision of ECOSOC to promote an
integrated approach to<BR>rural development for poverty eradication and
sustainable development.<BR>In this respect he said: "A challenge remains in the
need to link this<BR>work with the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO.
Without supportive<BR>processes in the financing and trade agendas, sustainable
development<BR>will not be possible. We are at a critical moment in time to
prove that<BR>the good intentions reflected in the commitments made by countries
are<BR>put into practice and that ECOSOC can play a leading role in
ensuring<BR>that this happens."<BR><BR>"ECOSOC Calls For Abolition Of
Agricultural Subsidies," UN NEWS CENTER,<BR>2 July 2003; "Annan Urges Action on
Rural Poverty," ENS, 1 July 2003;<BR>"UN Chiefs Plead With Powers For Fairer
Farm Trade," REUTERS, 30 June<BR>2003; "The poverty development nexus," IUCN, 9
July 2003.<BR><BR><BR><BR>WTO MEMBERS STILL FAR APART ON AGRICULTURE <BR><BR>At
a 26-27 June and 1 July special (negotiating) session of the WTO<BR>Committee on
Agriculture (CoA), Members mainly focussed on discussing a<BR>draft progress
report prepared by CoA negotiations Chair Stuart<BR>Harbinson to be submitted to
the Trade Negotiations Committee (see <BR>BRIDGES Weekly, 3 July
2003,<BR>http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-07-03/story2.htm). Members such as
the<BR>EU, Switzerland, Norway, Japan and Barbados insisted that the
modalities<BR>currently on the table could not serve as a basis for the
negotiations<BR>and thus called for a substantially different text -- leaving
open,<BR>however, who should produce it. In particular Members cannot agree
on<BR>the approach to reduce and cut tariffs and did not accept the
compromise<BR>approach by Harbinson. <BR><BR>Members also discussed the concept
of special products (allowing<BR>developing countries to make very modest tariff
cuts on such products),<BR>which is strongly supported by developing countries.
While countries<BR>such as Indonesia, India, China, and the Philippines demanded
that there<BR>should be no criteria and that developing countries should
decide<BR>themselves which products would be special products, Latin
American<BR>Cairns Group members, as well as many developed countries
criticised<BR>this approach. They argued that self-declaration would
emphasise<BR>protectionist tools, instead of tackling domestic support and
export<BR>subsidies in rich countries, and would hamper trade amongst
Southern<BR>countries themselves. Instead, these countries proposed that both
the<BR>special safeguard mechanism and special products should have
agreed<BR>criteria, and that they should be used as an incentive to liberalise.
<BR><BR>A final CoA negotiating session prior to Cancun is scheduled for
16-18<BR>July.<BR><BR>For a more detailed account of the meeting see: BRIDGES
Weekly Trade<BR>News Digest, 10 July
2003,<BR>http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-07-10/story1.htm.<BR><BR>'Special
Products: Thinking Through the Details', report by Oxford<BR>Policy Management,
downloadable
at:<BR>http://www.opml.co.uk/economic_policy/trade_policy/et787_spec_produ.html<BR><BR>ICTSD
reporting; "Cairns Group members fault misleading reference to<BR>'peace
clause,' WTO REPORTER, 30 June 2003.</FONT><BR><FONT size=3></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>Coming up in the next four weeks <BR><BR>7-15 July, Geneva,
Switzerland: FIFTH SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL<BR>COMMITTEE ON INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY AND GENETIC RESOURCES, TRADITIONAL<BR>KNOWLEDGE AND FOLKLORE. The
meeting is organized by WIPO. For further<BR>information contact the WIPO
Secretariat; tel: (41 22) 338-9111;<BR>Internet:
http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/meetings/2003/igc/index_5.htm<BR><BR><BR>12
July, Geneva, Switzerland: CASES AND VIEWS ON THE RELATIONSHIP<BR>BETWEEN IPRS,
GENETIC RESOURCES AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE. At this<BR>informal, off-the-record
roundtable, organised by ICTSD four speakers<BR>will present actual cases and
give their views on the possible solutions<BR>to the relationship between
intellectual property rights, genetic<BR>recourses and the protection of
traditional knowledge. For further<BR>information, contact: Marie Chamay, ICTSD;
tel: (41 22) 917-8492; fax:<BR>917-8093; email: <A
href="mailto:mchamay@ictsd.ch">mchamay@ictsd.ch</A>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>16-18 July, Geneva, Switzerland: WTO SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE
ON<BR>AGRICULTURE. For further information, contact the WTO Information
and<BR>Media Relations Division, Geneva; tel: (41 22) 739-5007; fax:
739-5458;<BR>email: enquiries@wto.org<BR><BR>16-18 July, Maastricht,
Netherlands: SEMINAR ON CHALLENGES AND RISKS OF<BR>GMOS - WHAT RISK ANALYSIS IS
APPROPRIATE? This Seminar will present a<BR>multinational framework, determining
scope and restrictions for national<BR>policies and border protection with
regards to the options for future<BR>policy making towards integrated agro-food
systems. In particular the<BR>seminar will focus on the relevant WTO-Agreements
on Standard Setting,<BR>Labelling Requirements and Intellectual Property Rights.
Parallel<BR>Multinational Agreements, such as the CBD, are presented and
their<BR>respective relation to WTO Agreements clarified. For
further<BR>information, contact Ruggero Lala, tel: (31 20) 620-0225; fax:
624-9368;<BR>email: ruggero.lala@amsu.edu;
Internet:<BR>http://www.amsu.edu/courses/law/publ12003.htm <BR><BR>12-15 August,
Geneva, Switzerland: 13TH MEETING OF THE CITES PLANTS<BR>COMMITTEE. The meeting
is organized by the CITES Secretariat. For<BR>further information contact: CITES
Secretariat; tel: (41 22) 917-8139;<BR>fax: 797-3417; email: cites@unep.ch;
Internet:<BR>http://www.cites.org/eng/cttee/plants/index.shtml<BR><BR>Other
forthcoming events<BR><BR>5-7 September, Cancun, Mexico: 18TH SESSION OF THE
GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY<BR>FORUM: BIODIVERSITY, TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT. The meeting<BR>just prior to the 5th Ministerial Conference
of the WTO will focus on:<BR>the relationship between the TRIPs Agreement and
the Convention on<BR>Biological Diversity (CBD); Risk, precaution and
biosecurity; and Trade<BR>and sustainable livelihoods. For further information,
contact: The GBF<BR>Secretariat, Caroline Martinet; tel: (41 22) 999-0216; fax:
999-0025;<BR>email: caroline.martinet@iucn.org; Internet: http://www.gbf.ch
<BR>RESOURCES<BR><BR>If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins,
etc.) you<BR>would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy
or<BR>review by the BRIDGES staff to Marianne Jacobsen,
mjacobsen@ictsd.ch.<BR><BR>ECOLABELING: OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROGRESS TOWARD
SUSTAINABILITY. By<BR>Consumer's Choice International (2002). This paper
assesses the value in<BR>ecolabelling. It offers definitions and classifications
of ecolabelling,<BR>a World Bank perspective and a Green Procurement Action
Plan. It<BR>discusses the labelling of GM foods, issues surrounding tropical
timbers<BR>and sustainability and issues of Environmental Assessment and Life
Cycle<BR>Analysis. The report is available
at:<BR>http://www.consumerscouncil.org/policy/ecolabeling_0402.pdf<BR><BR>HARMONISATION
OF THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT MECHANISMS OF THE MULTILATERAL<BR>ENVIRONMENTAL
AGREEMENTS AND THE WORLD TRADE AGREEMENTS. By Axel Bree<BR>and Sebastian
Jungnickel on behalf of in cooperation with CIEL on behalf<BR>of the German
Federal Environmental Agency (2003). The report addresses<BR>a key issue in
today's international environmental law debate - that of<BR>the interplay
between dispute settlement rules in Multilateral<BR>Environmental Agreements
(MEA) and in the World Trade Organisation<BR>(WTO). <BR><BR>GLOBALISATION,
EQUITY, AND POVERTY: THE SOUTH ASIAN EXPERIENCE. By<BR>Sisira Jayasuriya (Global
Development Network, January 2002). This paper<BR>reviews South Asia's recent
performance in growth, poverty, and equity,<BR>focusing particularly on India,
and Sri Lanka. A brief historical<BR>background is presented that traces the
impact on South Asia of the<BR>first phase of globalisation from the late 19th
century through to the<BR>first world war, and the impact of the economic and
political changes<BR>leading up to the second world war and independence. This
is followed by<BR>an analysis of the trends during the changing policy regimes
with<BR>particular emphasis on the experience of the liberalisation period.
The<BR>paper is available online
at:<BR>http://www.gdnet.org/pdf/Fourth_Annual_Conference/Parallels1/SouthAsia/j<BR>ayasuriya_paper.pdf<BR><BR>STANDARDS
AND GLOBAL TRADE: A VOICE FOR AFRICA. By the World Bank<BR>(2003). The report
says that firms must upgrade their facilities to meet<BR>global standards, for
example, by investing in better processing,<BR>cooling and storage. This
in turn will require that African governments<BR>continue to improve the climate
for investment, for example, by reducing<BR>corruption, cutting red tape, and
ensuring the provision of critical<BR>infrastructure, such as power,
telecommunications and farm-to-market<BR>roads. For more information
see:<BR>http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=1688<BR>508</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>