By
Novel Debate on
EU’s food regulation
The DSB
establishes panel in reference to aircraft subsidy dispute
Trade
Negotiations Committee Report
In March, the Cotton Four (the four African countries
that originally proposed the Cotton Initiative - Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and
Mali) clarified their proposal for cutting and eventually eliminating
trade-distorting domestic in a new paper discussed in the Cotton Sub-Committee.
The new details included a formula designed to ensure that the cuts on cotton
were deeper than those for agricultural as a whole. A number of members have
supported the proposal. The
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy meanwhile
started his consultations on the development aspects of cotton as instructed by
the Hong Kong Ministerial.
Top
Novel Debate
on EU’s Food Regulation
According to the Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures Committee, a proposed revision of the EU regulation on novel foods
aroused the concern of many developing countries, mainly from
Panel for Aircraft
Subsidy Dispute
The DSB, on February 17, 2006, established a
panel to help resolve a number of
procedural matters that have risen in the Dispute US measures affecting trade
in large civil aircraft brought by the EC.
The EC requested for the second time the
establishment of panel to resolve a number of procedural “imbroglios” that have
risen in the panel established on 20 July 2005. The EC explained at the last
DSB meeting that this “limbo” needed to be resolved quickly since the EC
considered that it has been deprived of its rights to access the documents
relevant, in particular regarding NASA and Departments of Defence subsidies, to
the dispute.
The
The Trade Policy Review for the
Some of the other Trade Reviews released in
the first quarter of 2006 were UAE,
Trade Negotiations
Committee Report
Director General Pascal Lamy, as the chair of
the Trade Negotiations Committee, presented the report of its first formal
meeting since the Hong Kong Ministerial to the General Council in February.
The Director General in his statement noted
the “very detailed timelines” in the Hong Kong Declaration and urged
negotiators “to intensify contacts with other delegations and with your
capitals, to move us towards the elements we need to conclude the Doha Round at
the end of this year”.
Mr Lamy said that from the meeting there was a
clear message that all members attached highest importance to making progress
in all the areas of negotiations in keeping with the Single Undertaking. He
said although Agriculture and NAMA would play the key role in leading the talks
to a successful conclusion, it is important that all other areas of
negotiations must be concluded at the same time as well. The Director General
said that the calendar of work with firm deadlines set out in the Hong Kong
Declaration governed the work that had to be carried out in this year.
Regarding the process of achieving an end to
the negotiations, Mr Lamy said that the pre-Hong Kong process had served well,
and therefore should be maintained and improved upon. He said that “a
transparent inclusive process, based on a bottoms-up approach is clearly in the
interest of us all”.
The
Director General underlined the fact that it was not enough to just continue
talking about calendar and process but it was time to turn to substance. He
stressed that the only way to make progress across the board in the Doha Round
Negotiations was by focussing on two main elements, namely numbers and words,
texts.
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