Note on the expiry of the Peace Clause: some elements for consideration by developing countries.
According to Art. 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture the reform process should continue through new negotiations which started in the year 2000. Although progress has been achieved in understanding the positions and concerns of members, no concrete result can be presented so far. (more…)
Institutional Governance and Decision-Making Processes in the WTO: Some Issues for Consideration after Cancun.
Issues relating to internal WTO institutional governance have long been on the agenda of the WTO, stemming primarily from the fact that the institutional mechanisms and processes used have led to problems of transparency, inclusiveness, and participation, as well as efficiency, in decision-making in the organization. (more…)
Chronology of Events in the Cancun WTO Ministerial Conference on 10-14 September 2003. (more…)
Suggestions on Procedural Options based on the 1996 WTO Rules of Procedure for Sessions of the Ministerial Conference with Respect to Some Issues.
This short note is prepared by the South Centre for developing country delegations arising from suggestions and discussions made during a meeting held at the South Centre on 3 September 2003. It suggests some procedural tactics that could be used to address some process-related issues of concern raised by developing countries with respect to: (more…)
European Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform in the WTO context.
This note is an attempt to appraise the possible implications of the decisions reached in Europe on 26 June on CAP reform for the agriculture negotiations at the WTO. That is, trying to understand how the policy changes agreed could be translated into the WTO framework and put it in context. (more…)
Proposals on a special safeguard for developing countries in agriculture. (more…)
Technical Assistance in the Area of Trade and Investment.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration (DMD) confirms the understanding among members that adequate, demand driven and recipient-controlled technical cooperation and capacity building constitute a core element of the development dimension of the multilateral trading system. (more…)
Processes and the Cancun Ministerial Conference.
Developing countries need to translate numerical advantage in the WTO into negotiating and bargaining leverage by working together and speaking out, as much as possible, with a common position on various issues. (more…)
Reflecting Sustainable Development in the Doha Trade Negotiations: Implementing Paragraph 51 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
Paragraph 51 of the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration provides a unique but ambiguous mandate for the WTO’s Committees on Trade and Development (CTD) and on Trade and Environment (CTE). (more…)
Ministerial-Level Meetings and their Outcomes as Legal Instruments.
This paper argues that taking into account the history of the GATT/WTO system and the current context of the negotiations, (more…)
Checklist of Questions for the Analysis of Initial Offers.
This note focuses on the analysis of initial offers for specific commitments that Members have started submitting since March 2003 in the context of the current services negotiations. Indeed, in order to facilitate and streamline the analysis of the initial offers it may be useful to identify several key questions that can be used as a guide in the analysis of offers. (more…)
The Balance of Negotiations and Discussions in the Doha Work Programme: Overview Matrix of Negotiating and Non-Negotiating Areas.
The Doha Ministerial Conference of the WTO, held in November 2001, launched an ambitious work programme. The discussions/ negotiations initiated under this work programme include a number of issues in addition to the WTO built-in agenda and purely trade-related issues. (more…)
