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Welcome
to the monthly newsletter for journalists about the impact of subsidies,
produced in partnership by IPS
- Inter Press Service and GSI
- Global Subsidies Initiative.
THIS
MONTH'S FOCUS:
SERVICES SECTOR SUBSIDIES
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Information on the nature, extent and economic impacts of subsidy practices in services is generally scant. Yet as the intensity of competition in services heightens, pressure may build for a more comprehensive set of disciplines to respond better to the potentially distortive effects of domestic support measures on patterns of cross-border trade and investment. |
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ABOUT
THIS NEWSLETTER
Subsidies
—transfers of public money to private interests—
are so common that for the most part they
go unnoticed; they can also be arcane and
complex, posing tremendous challenges for
journalists. Yet, many experts believe that
subsidies are one of the most critical factors
in determining the sustainability of a government’s
economic, social and environmental policies.
Read more here about the organisations that
have partnered to bring you this newsletter,
and why.
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Next step, Frame the Rules at WTO
By Pierre Sauvé
The last round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade talks, the Uruguay Round, broke new ground by broadening the scope of world trade rules to cover areas never before subject to multilateral disciplines. The services sector was without doubt where such broadening was most significant in economic terms
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More
information about subsidies
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The Global Subsidies Initiative cooperates
with an international network of researchers
working on subsidy related issues. Journalists
working on stories that involve subsidies,
and who are in search of expertise,
information and support are invited
to contact Javed Ahmad, the GSI's Director
of Communications, at info@globalsubsidies.org.
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Pierre Sauvé - Bio
Pierre Sauvé
is a faculty member and non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute, in Berne, Switzerland, and a Visiting Fellow and Research Associate in the International Trade Policy Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in London, U.K.
SUBSIDIES
STORIES FROM IPS - RECENT ARTICLES
EUROPE: ‘Biofuels Can Hurt the Poor’
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Nov 6 (IPS) - A body tasked with shaping European Union policy on biofuels is dominated by companies with a vested interest in promoting this source of energy, environmentalists have claimed.
DEVELOPMENT: Food to Biofuels a ‘Recipe for Disaster’
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6 (IPS) - A long-held basic human right, the right to adequate food for the world's 854 million hungry people, is being threatened once again -- this time by the conversion of wheat, sugar, palm oil and maize into agricultural fuel.
DEVELOPMENT: Subsidies Dip a Little, But Nowhere Near Decline
By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
GENEVA, Oct 23 (IPS) - Rich countries have failed to carry out reform of their domestic farm subsidies programmes to reduce distortions in global trade, says a senior official of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of 30 wealthy nations.
ENVIRONMENT: Biofuels – Great Green Hope or Swindle?
By Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Oct 20 (IPS) - A raft of new studies reveal European and American multibillion dollar support for biofuels is unsustainable, environmentally destructive and much more about subsidising agri-business corporations than combating global warming.
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