This report from India's Economic Times suggests there might be one.
There might be another mini-ministerial meeting in Geneva in September. It would aim at concluding the deal which almost seemed within grasp in last month’s mini-ministerial meeting,” an official said. The Geneva meeting resulted in failure as the US and India (which was representing about 100 developing countries) could not agree on the special safeguards to protect poor farmers against a surge in imports.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
WTO: Promising Signs For Resumed Negotiations
We decided after all the drama and frustration to take a bit of a break. Literally, we headed off to Italy f0r a holiday. But we are now back in Geneva.
We will be posting once daily to keep readers informed about latest developments in attempts to revive talks.
The main positives as we see them are the willingness of all the key players to leave the texts as they ended up on 29 July intact - the progress that was made is not lost; and efforts by Brazil's President to talk to China and India about the possibility of getting talks re-started. WTO Director-General Lamy is also about to hit the road. This could compliment Brazil's efforts nicely.
Also positive is the news that at least one of the Chairs of the negotiating groups - agriculture's Crawford Falconer from New Zealand seems to be staying in Geneva instead of returning to his capital, because there still seems hope of reviving the talks. Our sources in Brussels say that the US and EU both put pressure on the New Zealand Trade Minister to leave Falconer in place (Falconer was being talked about as either the new Vice Minister of Trade in New Zealand or Director of Trade and Agriculture in the OECD). The talks broke down in July because Falconer had not been able to bridge difference on agriculture sufficiently in his "walk in the woods" process.
Here are some interesting media reports.
AFP reports on President's Lula's efforts.
The IHT looks at the efforts underway to revive negotiations.
But it won't be easy. Senior US officials still haven't learned how to handle China. Public rebukes are not the way...
We will be posting once daily to keep readers informed about latest developments in attempts to revive talks.
The main positives as we see them are the willingness of all the key players to leave the texts as they ended up on 29 July intact - the progress that was made is not lost; and efforts by Brazil's President to talk to China and India about the possibility of getting talks re-started. WTO Director-General Lamy is also about to hit the road. This could compliment Brazil's efforts nicely.
Also positive is the news that at least one of the Chairs of the negotiating groups - agriculture's Crawford Falconer from New Zealand seems to be staying in Geneva instead of returning to his capital, because there still seems hope of reviving the talks. Our sources in Brussels say that the US and EU both put pressure on the New Zealand Trade Minister to leave Falconer in place (Falconer was being talked about as either the new Vice Minister of Trade in New Zealand or Director of Trade and Agriculture in the OECD). The talks broke down in July because Falconer had not been able to bridge difference on agriculture sufficiently in his "walk in the woods" process.
Here are some interesting media reports.
AFP reports on President's Lula's efforts.
The IHT looks at the efforts underway to revive negotiations.
But it won't be easy. Senior US officials still haven't learned how to handle China. Public rebukes are not the way...
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
World Trade Organization - Unofficial guide to agricultural safeguards
AN UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO AGRICULTURAL SAFEGUARDS
The talks among ministers meeting in Geneva from 21 July 2008 broke down on 29 July over the special safeguard mechanism (SSM). What exactly is the problem? A new unofficial guide is available on the WTO website. Browse or download Word or pdf versions here:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/agric_e/guide_agric_safeg_e.htm
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