HEALTH-THAILAND: New Gov&#39t Opposes Cheap Generic Drugs

Shortly before he left office in January, Thailand’s former public health minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, offered a gift of hope to the country’s poor. But that promise - to supply cheaper, generic anti-cancer drugs -now hangs in the balance.

UKRAINE: WTO Membership Opens Door to West

It took 15 years for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to finally approve Ukraine's membership, the first step in what Ukrainian officials hope is the country's inevitable journey towards the European Union (EU).

ECONOMY: Lin Yifu&#39s World Bank Job May Add To China&#39s Clout

The pending appointment of a Chinese academic as chief economist in one of the world’s prime financial institutions, the World Bank, comes at a time of symbolic shifts in economic power from west to east and foreshadows a more assertive China on the international stage.

TRADE: Africans Stuck With EU Deals

European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has distanced himself from a pledge to enable African countries revise a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) recently clinched with Brussels.

TRADE: Developing Countries Insist On Balance

Ministers from India, Brazil and South Africa warned at the Davos World Economic Forum Saturday that the success of Doha trade negotiations over the next couple of months will depend on "balanced" commitments between agriculture and opening of markets for industrial products.

ECONOMY-CHINA: Seeing Opportunity in US Recession

Chinese pundits continue to fret about the gloom and doom scenarios that an imminent United States economic recession might have in store for China’s surging economy, but some are beginning to see a silver lining in it too.

INDIA/CHINA: ‘Chindia’ May Help Quell Lingering Suspicions

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in China this week on the heels of a World Bank report release that thrust the two Asian giants in the role of engines for economic growth in 2008.

EUROPE: Looking for Fishy Partners

'Fish, pay and go'. These three words have long been used by green and anti-poverty activists to describe a raft of agreements, signed since 1979, under which European Union vessels scoop up as much fish as they can find from the waters of about 20 poor countries in the wider world. Little, if any, heed has been paid to the damage inflicted on marine ecology or to people living in coastal communities.

DEVELOPMENT: Spare This EU Paternalism

When Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade refused to sign a free trade accord put forward by the European Union last month, he urged that an alternative "partnership deprived of paternalism and without prejudice" be sought.

ECONOMY: Weaker Dollar May Hit Asian Exports – UN Report

Asia’s developing countries face a bumpy ride in the year ahead as a slowing United States economy and a weakening of the dollar will hit the flow of exports to that western giant, warn economists from a regional U.N. body.

ENVIRONMENT-THAILAND: Green Groups Will Take GM Crops Issue To Court

Thai environmentalists are banking on the country’s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.

ECONOMY-CHINA: Slipping On High Oil Prices

China’s economic minders have always prided themselves on the fact that despite the country’s insatiable appetite for energy its booming economy has remained largely insulated from fluctuating international oil prices.

MEXICO: Is the Freeing Up of Agricultural Trade Really New?

The elimination of all barriers to imported maize under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will ruin Mexico’s rural areas, according to activists and small farmers who are demanding that the measure be revoked. But the free market which opened on Jan. 1 has in fact been in effect for the past nine years.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Who Pays for Carbon on &#39Made in China&#39 Labels?

Standing on the brink of a year when its capital hosts the much-proclaimed ‘Green Olympics’, China is anxious to present a constructive presence at the United Nations climate change conference underway in Bali, Indonesia.

CLIMATE CHANGE: No Deal in Sight at Bali

As a major United Nations 'framework convention' on climate change (UNFCCC) crossed into its second half on Monday, the official view is one of optimism that progress has been made in laying the ''building blocks'' for a future agreement.

CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘Not Fair Picking on India, China’

Painting China and India as the villains of climate change, while letting rich industrialised countries get away with rising emissions of greenhouse gases (GhGs) that cause global warming, is patently unfair says an internationally-reputed non-government organisation (NGO).

TRADE: Subsidies Reform Still a Game of "You First"

Back in 2001, the European Union committed itself to phasing out all forms of subsidies that help its farmers sell food abroad.

CLIMATE CHANGE-JAPAN: Looking to Play a Key Role in Bali

Japan expects to play a key role at the 11-day conference which begins Monday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCC).

TRADE: U.S.-China Subsidy Deal Draws Mixed Reviews

China has agreed to scrap some trade subsidies, handing U.S. officials a rare chance to claim success in international affairs.

ENVIRONMENT: Palm Oil Not Green For Asia – UN Report

European Union (EU) demand for supposedly green-friendly fuels, such as palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost in Asia, warns a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

SRI LANKA: Fair Trade Labels Ensure Returns For Farmers

Organic farmers in this hilly, central region of Sri Lanka are convinced that they have a simple fair trade model that could be replicated in other parts of the world.