The World Needs More Trade to Contain the Slowdown

The global economy is facing strong headwinds that have set back world trade and output growth. Despite the measures implemented in many countries to contain the slowdown, production and employment trends continue to be negative. In the light of these developments, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) recently revised its forecast for world trade growth in 2012 to 2.5 percent, down from the previous 3.7 percent forecast. We foresee a volume of trade growth of 4.5 percent in 2013, below the long-term annual average of five to six percent that we have enjoyed for the last 20 years.

Caribbean Fed Up with U.S. Rum Subsidies

Caribbean governments have begun a quiet lobbying effort to convince Washington to rethink the subsidies it grants to the rum industry in U.S. territories, or face a formal complaint in the World Trade Organisation.

Bangladesh Eyes Drug Export Market

Bangladesh has begun to shed its image as one of the world’s poorest nations and make a reputation for itself as a major exporter of cheap generic drugs to over 85 countries.

Multilateralism is at a Crossroads

Multilateralism is at a crossroads. This is a crucial matter for environmental and sustainability issues, as we have seen in the Rio+20 Summit, and for trade and other economic matters. The G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, focused precisely on improving our collective response to the current economic turbulence, which is at the heart of developments in the European Union (EU) as well.

WTO-SPECIAL: Farmers Get Violent as Trade Talks Fail

It was a fight over rice. South Korean farmers battled police outside the halls where the week-long ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was ending Sunday, with little progress on the issue of export subsidies that rich nations pay to keep their agriculture going and undercut farmers in developing countries.

WTO-SPECIAL: Draft Text Is a Raw Deal, Activist Warns

World Trade Organisation (WTO) officials released a draft text Saturday of the meeting's final outcome pact, although disagreements among the group's 149 member countries - most sharply between the richest and poorest - could still scuttle the document.

WTO-SPECIAL: ‘Do Not Sacrifice Development’

Some 90 civil society organisations have asked developing countries "not to sacrifice their development by accepting the inadequate offers and extreme demands of developed countries."

WTO-SPECIAL: Red Carpet for Delegates, Activists Get Harassment

After months of rumours that opponents of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will wreak havoc on the city, activists here say Hong Kong authorities have launched a targeted campaign of harassment.

WTO-SPECIAL: Protesters Say Reform or Junk the Trade Talks

There may be as many police as protesters outside the venue of the sixth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as it opens on Tuesday.

TRADE: Campaign Against WTO Ministerial Conference Kicks Off

Protests against the upcoming WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong, by civil society groups from around the world, began Saturday in this Swiss city with a demonstration that lambasted the trade liberalisation process led by the global body.

TRADE: Anti-WTO Protesters Back on the Streets

Civil society groups will be taking to the streets beginning this week, staging demonstrations around the world in the run-up to the December WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong.

TRADE: A Bitter Pill for the WTO and Activists to Swallow

WTO authorities played down the significance of the new stalemate in the Doha Round of talks and the threat hanging over the sixth ministerial conference in Hong Kong. But civil society organisations see the multilateral trade system's latest fiasco in a much more serious light.