Full Coverage: Trade

31.01.2006 International agency Oxfam has said that rich countries must change their attitude to world trade negotiations and show leadership to deliver reforms that lift people out of poverty. It wants the EU and US to stop making excuses for not reforming agricultural trade rules and to end their unreasonable demands for developing countries to open industry and services markets.

31.01.2006 Sri Lanka sold a record 308 million kilos of the commodity to overseas buyers last year, a brokering house said on Monday. The tea exports in 2005 were 2.83 per cent higher than in 2004, maintaining a small but steady increase seen in the past three years, the Asia Siyaka Commodities said.

30.01.2006 Il neo-presidente Evo Morales ha lanciato il piano ‘Cocaina zero’, impegnandosi a perseguire i narcotrafficanti e, allo stesso tempo, a tutelare i contadini che coltivano tradizionalmente la foglia di coca, principale fonte di sostentamento per una larga fascia di popolazione povera. Morales ha chiarito che il suo governo non parlerà mai di “Coca zero” in riferimento alle politiche anti-droga dei suoi predecessori “tutte destinate al fallimento”. Di fronte a migliaia di sostenitori il presidente ha ribadito che si batterà “affinché la coca non figuri più nella lista dei ‘veleni’ delle Nazioni Unite”, pur precisando che “questo non comporterà comunque la libera coltivazione”. Nei giorni scorsi, mantenendo fede all’impegno annunciato in campagna elettorale, il neo-presidente boliviano ha più che dimezzato il suo stipendio dai 3.250 euro dei suoi predecessori percepirà circa 15.000 bolivianos, l’equivalente di 1.540 euro.

30.01.2006 Marks & Spencer will become the first major UK retailer to sell clothing made from 100 per cent Fairtrade cotton, the company said today as it launched a new campaign - 'Look behind the label' - to tell customers about the way its products are sourced and made.

30.01.2006 Intia avaa vähitellen vähittäiskaupan markkinoitaan ulkomaisille yrityksille. Muun muassa Nokia ja McDonald's saivat oikeuden 51 prosentin enemmistöasemaan niiden omia tuotteita myyvissä liikkeissä. Tähän asti myynti on pitänyt järjestää intialaisomisteisten franchise-yritysten kautta.

30.01.2006 SAFTA is aimed at reducing existing tariffs to less than 5 per cent within a stipulated time frame to boost trade among the SAARC member countries. India will have to allay fears of other members about its dominance

27.01.2006 We observe that poverty of nations instead of wealth of nations and simultaneous wealth of transnational corporations. The wealth of the world has increased -- multinationals are becoming wealthier, but the majority of the people of the world and most nations of the world, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), are becoming poorer. Mohammad Zakaria, ActionAid, Bangladesh, analyses the impact of globalization on LDCs and in particularly on Bangladesh. But the article represent south asia.

27.01.2006 Italia, Espanja ja Portugal painostavat Euroopan komissiota määräämään Kiinassa valmistetuille jalkineille tuntuvan tullin. Vaatimusta perustellaan EU:n kilpailuviranomaisten viimevuotisella selvityksellä, jonka mukaan kiinalaisia kenkiä myydään EU-alueella alle niiden tuotantokustannusten. Kiina on kiistänyt polkumyyntiväitteen. Tammikuun alkuviikkoina EU ja Kiina etsivät tiiviissä neuvotteluissa kiistaan ratkaisua.

27.01.2006 The Agriculture Development Ministry will promote Sri Lanka's export agriculture crops throughout the world with the assistance of Trade Commissioners serving in Lankan missions abroad. Through this move, the Ministry intends to obtain more foreign exchange earnings, Agriculture Development Minister Chamal Rajapakse said.

27.01.2006 Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners and mills remained active buyers around the current levels for the fine lots.

26.01.2006 European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s hardline stance over World Trade Organisation talks will lead to failure, warns a leading development charity.

25.01.2006 The State Bank estimates the potential of Pakistan-India trade in the range of $1 billion to $5.2 billion in a year as according to an analysis of bilateral trade composition in the year 2004 there are 1,181 items worth $3.9 billion common between Pakistan’s exports and Indian imports. Similarly, against 2,646 common items of Pakistan’s imports worth $7 billion in the year 2004, India had exports worth over $15 billion.

25.01.2006 Corporate lobbyists have an undue influence on the current global trade talks, says a report unveiled on the first day of the World Economic Forum at Davos, where 25 trade ministers will meet for a "mini-ministerial" on 25-29 January.

24.01.2006 European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's speech blaming countries such as Brazil and India for blocking a world trade deal has been condemned as offering 'the same excuses, the same unreasonable demands as last year.'

24.01.2006 Tre giorni di lavori molti intensi, circa 5000 delegati ogni giorno a partecipare a eventi e seminari, un incrocio di lingue - tra inglese, francese, bambarà e il nostro italiano, tra le delegazioni europee più consistenti - ma anche di culture e costumi, con il blu delle vesti tuareg e le stampe coloratissime delle donne africane a catturare attenzione e suscitare energia. Il Forum sociale mondiale a Bamako ci ha aperto una nuova pista di lavoro: quella di ricondurre le riflessioni e i saperi del movimento altermondialista alle pratiche concrete che in questo continente prendono le braccia e i volti dei movimenti delle donne, delle reti contadine, dei produttori, degli artigiani che fronteggiano quotidianamente i propri governi e i nostri per garantire la sopravvivenza alle proprie comunità. Ma il viaggio di Tradewatch si sposta verso Koutiala, ospiti della rete dei produttori di cotone maliani.

23.01.2006 Valentine's Day is coming up soon. Among other gifts, Lutheran World Relief offers chocolates from a cocoa cooperative in Ghana that ensures workers receive fair compensation for the chocolate they produce. Orders can be made online or via telephone.

23.01.2006 Africa, the world's poorest continent, for the first time is playing host to the World Social Forum, the anti-globalisation movement set up as a counterweight to a forum of the world's rich and powerful.

21.01.2006 Environmentalists may be up in arms but many people in Alang are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the discarded and controversial French warship Clemenceau - for their bread and butter. Alang has for long been a booming graveyard of ships from the world over, a place where vessels are ripped apart for every little particle that will fetch money as scrap.

21.01.2006 Three critical developments in the nineties have shaped the on-going development discourse - the emergence of the knowledge economy and knowledge societies, formation of the WTO and ratification of the MDGs at the UN millennium summit. All the three initiatives were intended to strengthen the development agenda and improve the condition of the people who are still out of the development framework. Today if we gauge the progress of these three initiatives the result varies-this view was express by Dr.Nilay Ranjan and Dr.B.Shadrach of Oneworld south Asia in a paper presented at Hong Kong.

20.01.2006 The US and European Union must not attempt to force genetically modified food onto European markets, an international consumer movement said today amidst reports that the WTO is about to rule in favour of Washington in its dispute with Brussels over approval of new GM foods.