Trade β Blog
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This blog is for trialing ideas on trade and any other subject, hence "beta". Find blog posts about WTO, rules, commitments, tariffs, standards, trade wars, geographical indications, and more UK-EU tariffs, tariff quotas, services, media, leadership, GATT Art24, continuity deals, and more
Trade β Blog
6d ago
PREVIOUS STORIES
Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference
Chair’s draft pushes WTO farm talks deadlines back to next conference
See also all stories on this topic (tagged “agriculture negotiations”)
Posted by Peter Ungphakorn
APRIL 21, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 21, 2024
Negotiators in the World Trade Organization’s farm talks broadly agree that a new approach is needed to revive the talks after they failed completely at the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference, but they differ on whether to tackle the entire subject or focus on priority areas.
On the table in the April 16 ..read more
Trade β Blog
3w ago
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After:
What next? Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference
Before:
Cynics circle as another WTO Ministerial Conference heads for small pickings
Definitely. Maybe. Unlikely. Who knows? Issues on the WTO conference agenda
By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe
POSTED APRIL 5, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 5, 2024
Judging by the WTO website’s coverage, the World Trade Organization’s Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference was a success, albeit a qualified one, at least in WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s assessments. Is this credible?
“Despite the more than challenging co ..read more
Trade β Blog
1M ago
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Something needs to be done about plurilaterals (in Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference)
In General Council India alone opposes investment deal as a WTO agreement
Comment: on India’s claim that a plurilateral WTO deal is ‘illegal’
Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules
Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’
Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED MARCH 22, 2024 | UPDATED MARCH 22, 2024
India and South Africa, now joined by Tür ..read more
Trade β Blog
1M ago
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Objections dropped on services regulation say nothing about other plurilaterals
Plurilateral services commitments from 53 members certified, leaving 17 to go
South Africa drops objections to 27 plurilateral services commitments
Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal
AND
Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules
Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’
Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED MARCH 6, 2024 | UPDATED MARC ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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Plurilateral services commitments from 53 members certified, leaving 17 to go
Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal
AND
Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules
Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’
Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 28, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 28, 2024
Most of the reports coming from the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi speak of the new plurilateral agreement on ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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South Africa drops objections to 27 plurilateral services commitments
Experts: India, S.Africa unlikely to succeed in blocking WTO services deal
AND
Technical note: types of plurilateral deals and adding them to WTO rules
Explainer: The 18 WTO plurilaterals and ‘joint-statement initiatives’
Technical note: Participation in WTO plurilateral talks
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 27, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 27, 2024
At the last-minute India has dropped its objections, allowing a plurilateral agreement to streamline domestic services regulations to be fully legal i ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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In depth:
Behind the rhetoric: ‘Public stockholding for food security’ in the WTO
WTO fact sheet:
The Bali decision on stockholding for food security in developing countries
All stories on this topic (tagged “food stockholding”)
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 25, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 25, 2024
It almost wrecked the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013. It delayed by a year the final agreement on an entirely separate topic: trade facilitation. It caused agriculture to be dropped completely from the 2022 Ministerial Conference in Geneva. And now ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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The big-picture: Cynics circle as another WTO Ministerial Conference heads for small pickings
By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe
POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2024UPDATED FEBRUARY 21, 2024
Two large but stubborn members may prevent ministers from agreeing on anything important at the World Trade Organization’s upcoming Ministerial Conference, and so the cynics are circling with doom-laden prophecies that “the WTO” is likely to fail again.
One is India, which is demanding the impossible in agriculture and threatening to block several other issues supported by a majority of WTO members. The oth ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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The issues: Definitely. Maybe. Unlikely. Who knows? Issues on the WTO conference agenda
By Peter Ungphakorn and Robert Wolfe
POSTED FEBRUARY 21, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 21, 2024
The cynics are circling the World Trade Organization’s upcoming Ministerial Conference with doom-laden prophecies that the “WTO” is likely to fail, again.
The cans that were kicked down the road in Geneva in 2022 are now supposed to produce content in Abu Dhabi in 2024. The prospects of that are sobering.
But the WTO is not just its Ministerial Conferences, and the purpose of these conferences is not merely co ..read more
Trade β Blog
2M ago
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Chair upbeat about members’ approach to final WTO fish subsidies push
Chair issues new draft before final fisheries subsidies month
Updates, timeline and links
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All articles tagged “fisheries subsidies” | Technical note on subsidies for fisheries
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2024 | UPDATED FEBRUARY 19, 2024
The fisheries subsidies draft for the World Trade Organization’s February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi was published on February 16 along with a detailed explanation by the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland.
“All members are ve ..read more