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A Better Agricultural Text: still a long way
The new texts on agricultural negotiations and NAMA negotiations do not add much to the previous drafts released two months ago. Many brackets are still to be negotiated in agricultural negotiations. There is a meet of the WTO members by this month-end and even though the revised text is said to be a blueprint for the final agreement, developing countries should not accede to a deal unless all development issues are comprehensively addressed.
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The Slippery Slope of Negotiations at the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
A lot was expected of the negotiations at the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. But, those who saw an opportunity to make a difference in a starkly iniquitous situation, where medicines required the most for the world's poorest and vulnerable populations are rarely researched or made accessible and affordable, were awestruck, as the conclusion won't make any dent in the present scenario.
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Volatility in Food prices: Futures caused the market manipulation
On account of speculative trading and impact of prices of essential commodities, futures trading in wheat, rice and pulses has been suspended by the Forward Markets Commission as it caused market manipulation, leading to a rise in prices. But, a future trading is still being carried out in a number of agricultural commodities, says Krishan Bir Chaudhary.
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Soaring world food prices and volatility: Can trade break the jinx?
The global agricultural market has been witnessing structural change for the past two years wherein international prices of agricultural commodities have been seeing an upward trend. These changes are primarily driven by a combination of demand and supply factors.
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Exchange Rate Instability & Exporters: Reflection on trade policy
The report focuses on a number of steps that need to be taken to give a much-needed boost to the export sector to maintain the growth of the Indian economy. It also says that the adverse impact of exchange rate instability is high on the export sector.
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Future climate negotiations: Role of civil societies
A noted environmental activist from South Asia and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change representing Bangladesh, Dr Atiq Rahman and his senior colleague Mr Khandaker Mainuddin share with Centad the inputs from the COP 13, Bali, December 2007.
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SPS-related Market Access Barriers in the EU: India Must Address its Concerns under the Proposed FTA
The report highlights the problems that agro-export items have been facing in the 27-member block EU for the past decade. It concentrates on the issues like food, and health safety requirements, which have become the hurdle in the EU-India FTA negotiations.
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Draft Anti-Dumping Agreement – Critique of Selected Issues
The report critically examines the provisions -- constructed normal value, zeroing, causation, de minimis dumping margin and the lesser duty rule -- of the anti-dumping agreement which act as barriers to international trade.
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A Balanced Development Round in Agriculture still a distant dream
Though the Agriculture text tries to tackle all the development issues in developing countries, but questions like how the Doha Round will face different challenges, still remain unanswered, says Linu Mathew Philip
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Draft NAMA Modalities Text: Development Concerns Still Remain Neglected
NAMA negotiations text not only ignores concerns of developing countries, it also fails to take care of mandatory provisions of Article 16 listed in the Doha Ministerial Declaration, argues Kasturi Das
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Diversifying Indian Machine tool Production: Key to Sustainable Trade Competitiveness
The report concentrates on the export performance of Indian machine tools during the period of liberalisation. It also attempts to analyse the export competitiveness of machine tools during the period.
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The Novartis case
What lay behind the Madras High Court ruling against Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis’ challenge of the Indian Patents Act? A detailed analysis of the celebrated case and its implications for access to affordable medicines.
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Novartis’ response: A reality check
An answer to Novartis’ claim that the judgment of the Madras High Court in the Indian patents case will discourage investments in innovation that would have resulted in better medicines.
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Agriculture sector policy must be coherent with trade policy: Prabhu Pingali
Professor Prabhu Pingali, Director, Agricultural Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome, explains how small farmers can benefit from the commercialisation of agriculture.
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Strengthening and enforcing anti-trust law can make a difference: Alexandra Spieldoch
Agribusiness and development expert Alexandra Spieldoch explains how big agribusinesses corporations work against the interests of farmers.
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The Draft Modalities Text on NAMA: A Critique
The Draft Modalities Text put forward by the chair of the WTO’s Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations, on July 17, 2007 fails to take into account the concerns and views of most of the developing countries.
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Indian cotton farmers face deeper crisis
Poor market support, rising production costs and incoherent government policies have pushed Indian cotton farmers into deep crisis.
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South Asia needs to adopt best practices in regulation: Saman Kelegama
Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka, explains how South Asian countries can benefit from trade in services.
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Developed countries are playing duck-and-dive: Yash Tandon
Professor Yash Tandon, Executive Director of South Centre, Geneva, on the implications of GATS negotiations for developing countries.
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Towards a smoother transition to organic farming
Organic farming, mainly for the export market, has made significant progress in many parts of India. However, this form of agriculture faces a number of obstacles. Institutional support by the government is essential to overcome the hurdles and promote faster growth in this sector, argues Kasturi Das.
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Compulsory licensing: Suggestions for change
Hardly any developing country, including India, has made full use of stipulations related to compulsory licensing. To remedy this situation, the author suggests and discusses necessary amendments in the Indian Patents Act.
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Special Economic Zones: padding gains, discounting losses
The government has not thought out all the implications of the Special Economic Zones it wants to promote all over the country.
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Aid-for-trade: Country ownership crucial: Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza
In an interview with Centad, Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza, Senior Fellow, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) emphasised that country ownership is very strongly underlined in the aid-for-trade initiative, in the identification of needs and development priorities.
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Aid-for-trade: Bonanza for consultants, nothing for development: J Michael Finger
Former lead economist and chief, Trade Policy Research Group, World Bank, J Michael Finger discusses the aid-for-trade provision in an interview with Centad.
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Least development-friendly outcomes expected from NAMA negotiations
The August 2004 Framework on NAMA, supplemented by the Hong Kong Declaration, is heavily tilted against developing countries. The new system that is being created will reduce development flexibilities in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and accelerate de-industrialisation, argues Martin Khor.
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TRIPS-related issues of the Doha Work Programme
Talks on several issues related to Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that have to be sorted out in the Doha Work Programme have not made much headway.
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Impasse in agriculture negotiations: lack of process and substance
From a development perspective, negotiations on agriculture before the suspension of talks in the Doha Work Programm (DWP) were lacking both in process and in substance. Hence, the suspension of negotiations should lead to a review, rethinking and revision of the frameworks of the DWP, instead of a resumption of talks along the same lines, argues Martin Khor.
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Mashelkar Committee report: A critique
The Mashelkar Committee report has not fulfilled its mandate of determining whether the granting of patents for pharmaceutical substances under TRIPS should be limited to new chemical entities or to new medical entities involving one or more inventive steps.
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S&DT for developing countries--New approach needed: Chandrakant Patel
Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT), an important area for developed and least developed countries in the WTO negotiations, needs to be made more responsive to the needs of these countries, argues Chandrakant Patel of the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Switzerland.
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Developing countries disadvantaged in the WTO: Prof B S Chimni
Eminent legal scholar Professor B S Chimni discusses ways in which the dispute settlement system of the WTO can be more responsive to the needs of developing countries.
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Credibility of DSB seems reasonably well established: John H Jackson
Professor John H Jackson compares the WTO dispute settlement body with other multilateral juridical bodies and finds it holds up well.
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The WTO and protectionism -- Back to the future?
The authors examine three questions that dominate the postmortem of the failure of the recent WTO talks: What caused the failure? Does it mean the end of the Doha Development Agenda? Will bilateralism and regionalism become even more dominant?
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RTAs and BTAs present many challenges: Jo Leadbeater
Regional and bilateral trade agreements need to be scrutinised more closely, says Jo Leadbeater, head of advocacy at Oxfam GB.
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North-South RTAs reinforce existing inequalities: Jayati Ghosh
Economist Jayati Ghosh talks to Centad about the proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs).
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Data exclusivity: Public interest must be kept before profit
With patent protection in place in India, MNCs, big pharma companies and agro-chemical majors in the country are unjustified in demanding exclusive rights over clinical and field trial data, argues K M Gopakumar
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Use of biological resources or Traditional Knowledge: Additional disclosure proposed
Developing countries including India have proposed an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, to make additional disclosure obligations mandatory when patent applications relate to use of biological resources or related traditional knowledge.
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Special products flexibility a legitimate demand
Renewed pressures applied on developing countries for further dilution of protective safeguards in agriculture does not augur well for poor and marginal farmers in countries like India, argues Linu Mathew Philip.
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Linking sensitive products with special products is like comparing oranges with apples
Sensitive products are a tool of protection, whereas the special products are a tool of development, points out Samar Verma.
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The death of the ABI alliance
If NAMA negotiations are now going in a direction detrimental to developing countries, a good part of the blame lies in the easy give-ins and compromises.
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Indian cotton farming at the crossroads
The suicide of cotton farmers in India’s cotton-growing districts has set off alarm bells in the sector. A national workshop organised by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Good Governance on February 27-28, 2006 highlighted several of the problems plaguing cotton cultivation.
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