maandag, juli 18, 2005
US moves to curb cotton subsidies
BBC NEWS | "US cotton subsidies which have fuelled a long-running trade dispute with other countries are to be scrapped, the Bush administration has revealed.
The US government will ask Congress to pass legislation to repeal subsidy programmes after the World Trade Organization ruled they were illegal.
The move came on the same day that Brazil threatened to raise tariffs on US imports in retaliation.
Poorer countries say US subsidies distort prices and harm competition."
donderdag, mei 26, 2005
WTO agrees entry talks with Iran
BBC NEWS | "The World Trade Organisation has agreed to allow Iran to begin membership talks after the US lifted its opposition to Tehran joining the body.
The move comes a day after Iran agreed a deal with European countries to maintain its suspension of nuclear activities and continue talks.
The US said in March it would drop its decade-long block on Iran to help those negotiations.
Iran applied to join the 148-member trade group in September 1996."
WTO to approve Lamy for top job
BBC NEWS | "Pascal Lamy will be officially appointed as the next head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday.
The European Union's former trade commissioner emerged as the clear favourite for the role this month when his main rival withdrew from the race.
Mr Lamy, who will assume the top post at the 148 member organisation in September, faces major challenges.
He must handle an escalating trade row between China and the United States and try to secure a new free trade round."
vrijdag, april 29, 2005
Mauritian candidate quits WTO leadership race, Lamy stays top - Yahoo! News
Yahoo! News | "Jayen Cuttaree, the Mauritian candidate to head the World Trade Organisation, told AFP he was out of the race, leaving former EU trade chief Pascal Lamy top and Uruguay's Carlos Perez del Castillo second.
'We took part in the competition and we lost,' Cuttaree said, after the WTO selection team ended a nine-day second round of consultations with the organisation's 148 members aimed at gauging support for the three nominees."
Mauritian candidate quits WTO leadership race, Lamy stays top
woensdag, april 06, 2005
US 'very comfortable' with Lamy as possible WTO head
Yahoo! News |"A senior State Department official said Washington would be 'very comfortable' with former EU trade chief Pascal Lamy running the WTO but denied a deal had been done to back him in exchange for EU support for the US's controversial candidate at the World Bank.
US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick hailed Lamy, his personal friend, as an excellent candidate to be head of the World Trade Organisation amid growing concerns among developing nations that rich countries are doing backroom deals to fill top international jobs with their own.
Lamy, who is French and who worked closely with Zoellick when the latter was US trade representative, is currently the European Union's candidate to become the next WTO director general.
'I obviously consider commissioner Lamy both as a friend and a very accomplished trade leader,' Zoellick said at a news conference at the European Parliament here.
'We consider that he would be a very strong candidate... We've made it clear that we'd be very comfortable with commissioner Lamy.'
Other candidates in the running to succeed Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand are Brazilian trade ambassador Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa, Carlos Perez del Castillo of Uruguay and Mauritian Foreign Minister Jayen Cuttaree.
Diplomats are waiting to see who will pull out of the race first. Many trading nations -- including the United States and India -- have not yet clearly indicated which candidate they support.
Zoellick invited Lamy to come to Washington to plead his case for running the WTO.
'I tried to stay in touch with commissioner Lamy on this in his consultations with other countries. I encourage him to come visit the United States which I believe he is going to be doing in the month of April to talk to members of our Congress and other members of our executive branch.'
WTO members are to make their final choice on replacing Supachai by the end of May.
The appointment of former US Defense Department official Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank has raised concern among developing countries that the United States and the EU may be tacitly sharing out the top posts at major international financial institutions, including the WTO.
Media reports have suggested that the March 31 appointment of Wolfowitz, widely regarded as a hardline conservative in international affairs, was backed by the Europeans in exchange for US support for Lamy at the WTO.
But Zoellick said: 'I've seen allegations of a trade-off; there's no trade-off. Commissioner Lamy is... a very strong candidate, he doesn't need a trade-off.'
Since 1944, the US favourite had traditionally been granted the World Bank job while western Europeans have been first choice at the World Bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Developing countries, which have grown in political strength at the WTO in recent years, are now more anxious than ever to ensure that the global trade body does not go the same way.
The last leadership race at the WTO in 1999 was marked by bitter divisions among members states, including a partial north-south split.
The WTO wants to ensure there is no re-run of that deadlock that ended in a compromise halving of the six-year mandate between current chief Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand and his predecessor Mike Moore of New Zealand."
vrijdag, februari 11, 2005
The WTO Is in Trouble
TCS: Tech Central Station | "Free trade agreements (FTAs) are popping up everywhere. In its first term the Bush Administration got four through Congress and started another three. China is now negotiating FTAs with Chile and New Zealand. Not everyone thinks they are good. Peter Sutherland, Chairman of BP Amoco, has just told the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) they threaten the WTO.
The WTO is in trouble, but not because of that. The core value in the WTO -- everybody liberalizes for the common good -- is under threat. At least half the membership of the WTO no longer think this is what the WTO is for."
zaterdag, januari 15, 2005
W.T.O. to Consider Lumber Tariff Case
The New York Times | "The World Trade Organization agreed Friday to investigate whether United States antidumping duties on Canada's multibillion-dollar lumber exports had been brought into line with trade rules, officials said.
The United States said it changed its policy after the W.T.O. ruled last year that duties had not been properly calculated. Canada disputes this and has threatened to seek up to $167 million in retaliatory sanctions.
A panel of trade judges will have up to three months to decide whether Washington did enough when it announced in December that it was slightly reducing the level of the antidumping duty, the officials said."
woensdag, januari 12, 2005
