Full Coverage: Trade

30.12.2005 Moreover, all member countries have finalised sensitive lists that protect vulnerable domestic producers. The tariff reduction mandated under SAFTA will not apply on items on countries’ respective sensitive lists. India, for instance, has kept 884 tariff lines in its sensitive list for non-LDCs and 763 items inthe list for LDCs. India’s sensitive list mainly includes agricultural goods, textiles, chemicals, leather and goods reserved for small scale industries.

29.12.2005 The government has ratified SAFTA and endorsed a tariff liberalization plan (TLP) which will drop prices of Indian as well as other South Asian goods from the next fiscal year.

28.12.2005 Dr Nilay Ranjan talks about the changing face of advocacy
at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial meeting. He mentions that the protest at the Hong Kong clearly passes on the message that the developing and least developing countries need more policy space in the negotiation process. If it is denied, people will protest in more violent ways because unfair trade directly affects the livelihood of the individual, which provokes them to raise their voice.

28.12.2005 With three days left to meet the deadline, the trade under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) among the Sarrc counties from January 1, next year is in doldrums as Sri Lanka says it will ratify Safta draft some time in April next year.

28.12.2005 Pakistan made clear on Tuesday it was not bound to offer a transit facility for trade between Afghanistan and other member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

27.12.2005 The Federal Minister for Commerce Humayun Akhtar Khan has said that end in agricultural subsidy and duty tariffs on cotton products as initiated by WTO, would greatly benefit Pakistan.

27.12.2005 Despite all the attention it gets, the trade accounts for only 10 % of the annual national income of Nepal. And given that average growth rates of flagship export items and major commodities have gone down markedly in recent years. In that context, if one shifts gears from Hong Kong to Kathmandu these questions come up: if trade is so important, why aren’t their many Nepali entrepreneurs engaged in it? The time has come to start shifting the slant of discussion to what changes in policies would lead to easier and more trade and facilitates entrepreneurship culture.

27.12.2005 The World Food Programme (WFP) will continue to support improving immediate access of rural households to health, education and agricultural services in food insecure areas in 2006.

27.12.2005 Bangladesh commerce minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury on Monday said the country has asked the WTO to help prepare a list of products which will fall under the 3 percent exclusion list and will not enjoy duty free and quota free market access under the Hong Kong offer.

23.12.2005 On the eve of the East Asia Summit, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew hoped that India "would be a useful balance to China's heft" and that Asia's two ancient civilisations would "again" extend their influence into South-East Asia. "It would mean great prosperity for the region, but could also mean a tussle for power."

22.12.2005 Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske je jučer odbacio prijedlog za ocjenu ustavnosti odredbe Zakona o zaštiti potrošača po kojoj trgovac ne smije naplaćivati ambalažu u obliku vrećica ili torbi s logotipima i nazivima proizvođača ili trgovca jer se takva ambalaža smatra reklamnim sredstvom. Prijedlog je podnio trgovački lanac Kaufland Hrvatska.

22.12.2005 With protests now becoming an integral part of WTO ministerials it is hardly surprising that the organisation likes to project its decisions as having a human face.

22.12.2005 The National Social Watch Coalition and ActionAid India provide the latest information and news from Hong Kong. The information has been provided in the form of two newsletters in PDF - wto news6.pdf and wto news8.pdf.

21.12.2005 The process of globalization has added various new dimensions in the education sector.The dichotomy between education as a tradable good and as public good has gained a great deal of attention in recent years.An important question that posed is on the structural change of the education sector is that if trade in education is already taking place than what should be it Nature if it become a part of the legal structure of the WTO.

21.12.2005 Maailman suurin ammattijärjestö VAKL tyrmää WTO-kokouksen tulokset. VAKLin arvion mukaan Hongkongissa synnytetyn sopimuksen seuraukset kehitysmaille ovat vakavat, ja aikaansaatu sopimus on "uusi isku työllisyyttä ja kestävää kehitystä vastaan".

21.12.2005 African and Asian journalists, reporting during the WTO's summit in Hong Kong, show how rules governing international trade have an impact on peoples’ lives.

21.12.2005 The protests and demonstrations outside the Hong Kong Convention Centre were more telling than the predictable negotiations inside it, reports John Samuel. They indicated that the WTO debate is spilling out of the mystified ivory towers of policy into the political domain of the streets and slums.

21.12.2005 Modest progress has been made towards the goal of forging a global trade pact by late 2006, at the WTO Ministerial meet that concluded in Hong Kong. But the development agenda was not served by the talks’ final declaration, hammered out after much wrangling.

20.12.2005 Oxfam and friends of the earth have branded a World Trade Organisation agreement struck in Hong Kong as “a dirty little deal” that betrayed developing countries

20.12.2005 Commodity markets had a good day with most of the commodities ending in green. Markets opened in a jittery mood but gained momentum in mid sessions and ended the day in the positive territory. However there was a volume crunch in bullion in Asian trade. Pulses and spices remained the top of the charts in trading activity.