APEC, free trade and the WTO
By Humberto Campodónico
The implementation of bilateral free trade agreements, the FTAs, began 25 years ago, with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the United States. The European Union, which was initially reluctant to sign bilateral FTAs, also adopted them. In our region, Chile was the first South American country to sign an FTA with the US. Then came Peru and Colombia. (more…)
Is the Right to Use Trademarks Mandated by the TRIPS Agreement?
Accepting the notion that a positive right to use a trademark is implicitly recognized by the TRIPS Agreement would have systemic implications in the context of WTO. (more…)
Title: Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health: An Effective Solution?
Date: 8 November 2016, 13:00-15:00
Venue: Room S2, WTO Building, Rue de Lausanne 154, CH-1211 Geneva 21
Organizer: The South Centre, co-sponsored by Brazil, China, India, South Africa, MSF (more…)
Statement by the South Centre on the Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines released on 14 September 2016
The South Centre endorses the report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines and its call on governments, the United Nations entities and others including the World Trade Organization, to take action on the report’s recommendations. (more…)
Innovation and Global Intellectual Property Regulatory Regimes – The Tension between Protection and Access in Africa
This paper discusses the participation of African countries in global intellectual property (IP) regimes centred on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the implications of the expansion of the scope of IP regimes through bilateral trade and investment agreements. (more…)
Key Substantive and Process Issues Arising from the WTO’s Nairobi Ministerial Conference (MC10)
Despite concerted attempts by major trading partners to bury the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda (DDA) in Nairobi, they were unsuccessful. Part I of this paper provides a legal reading of the Nairobi Ministerial Declaration (NMD) as it pertains to the DDA, and also discusses other legal questions regarding the conclusion of the DDA. (more…)
Discussions in the Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and Investment (2001-2003)
This Note reviews Members’ submissions in the Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and Investment (WGTI) between 2001 – 2003.
The Singapore Ministerial Declaration established the WGTI to examine the relationship between trade and investment. Subsequently, the Doha Ministerial Declaration tasked the WGTI to focus on the clarification of seven elements of a possible future multilateral investment agreement, as well as some other issues: (more…)
WTO’s MC10: The Call for ‘New Issues’ at the WTO and Implications for Developing Countries
Narratives concerning enhancing the participation of developing countries in ‘Global Value Chains’ (GVCs) and supporting micro, small and medium enterprises have featured prominently in the WTO
and other international organizations. These have intensified in the run up towards the Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. These discourses on GVCs and MSMEs have often been linked to (more…)
WTO’s MC10: The Nairobi Ministerial Declaration
When launched in 2001, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) had the objective of being a Development Round. However, substantive development concerns have often been sidelined in the course of the negotiations. Without the Doha mandate, developing countries have no guarantee that the important issues of disciplines on domestic supports, special safeguard in agriculture and cotton will feature in future negotiations on Agriculture. (more…)
WTO’s MC10: Agriculture Negotiations– Public Stockholding
Public stockholding programmes have over the past decades proven themselves to be very effective instruments for supporting domestic producers in agricultural production. Studies have shown that in
fact, countries that are still in the process of development, where markets are not well developed, need such public stockholding programmes to support their farmers.
Many developing countries do have these programmes. This non-exhaustive list (more…)
WTO’s MC10: Agriculture Negotiations – Special Safeguard in Agriculture for Developing Countries
The agricultural safeguard is important for developing countries. Most developed countries already have access to a special agricultural safeguard as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations, and
some of them have actively utilised this Special Safeguard Provisions (SSG) through the past 20 years.
Developing countries require a similar instrument because of the many agricultural import surges taking place. (more…)
WTO’s MC10: Agriculture Negotiations – Export Competition
This note provides a brief on Export Competition and the four issues that it covers:
With respect to export subsidies, the EU, the Member with the largest export subsidy entitlements applies zero export subsidies under its Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020. Commitments to bind export subsidies at zero are therefore a step in the right direction but the extent of its value is limited. The Green Box remains undisciplined (more…)
