TRADE: Promises Go One Way, Subsidies Another

Africa's leading cotton producing countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad - are upset over Washington's continued failure to implement the commitments it undertook at the World Trade Organisation's Hong Kong ministerial Meeting in 2005 to address the distortions caused by the U.S. subsidies in the global cotton trade.

TRADE: Poor Face Up to EU Arm-Twisting

Europe's highest-ranking trade official has claimed that the entire African, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP) bloc is committed to reaching controversial free trade deals with the EU by the end of this year. Not everyone from the ACP group thinks so.

TRADE: Poor Infrastructure Undermines Food Safety in West Africa

A container ship is docked at Ghana's Tema port, stuffed to the brim with frozen food products, including thousands of metric tonnes of poultry parts recently arrived from Brazil. These are unloaded into cold storage facilities until they can be transported to the capital of Accra or elsewhere in the country.

TRADE: Europe Grapples With the Future of ACP Sugar Imports

The European Union (EU) has imported sugar at preferential prices from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries since the 1970s; but, failed sugar reform within the union and the prospect of unlimited imports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the near future have put a question mark over this arrangement.

TRADE: EU in Dialogue of the Deaf with Poor Countries

The European Commission and a grouping of countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are no nearer an agreement on trade liberalisation after their latest effort.

CHINA: Sustainable Development Gets Priority

Chinese leaders are seeking a new formula for expansion of the world's fastest-growing economy, which addresses the costs of growth such as environmental damage and a widening income gap. They want to switch to a more sustainable mode of development where China consumes and pollutes less.

TRADE: Developing Countries Fight Another Formula

Several developing countries have sharply criticised fresh attempts by the European Union and the United States to pry open their industrial markets through a controversial Swiss formula.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: DR-CAFTA Launches, as Free Zones Founder

On Thursday, the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) finally entered into force in this country, after years of tough negotiations and repeated delays, the Trade and Industry Ministry confirmed.

PHILIPPINES: China’s New Playground

From sand replicas of the Great Wall on the fine, white beaches here to rowdy banquets of singing moon gazers, traces of China's expanding economic boom are everywhere to be found on this tiny Philippines island, an hour by plane from Manila.

JAPAN: Fair Trade Concept Starts to Sell

When Sonoko Iwasa, started her tiny shop selling ‘fair trade’ goods in Mitaka, a decade ago, she was in for a long struggle to survive in a wealthy, traditional neighbourhood which had little understanding of global issues, let alone marginalised communities in the developing South.

URUGUAY: Brazil Has Reassuring Words for ‘Little Brother’

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed the role of elder brother and visited his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabaré Vázquez on Monday with the sole purpose of soothing the rising discontent of this country with the Mercosur trade bloc.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Helping the Cotton Sector Turn Over a New Leaf

Kenya's cotton industry, once one of the country's main foreign exchange earners, declined substantially following liberalisation of the sector in 1991.

TRADE-MEXICO: Staple Foods at Risk from Free Market

When the Mexican government negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in force since 1994, it estimated that 14 years of safeguards for its maize and beans would be enough time for local production of these crops to become competitive. But things did not work out that way.

HEALTH-INDIA: Campaign to Stop Monopoly of Clinical Trial Data

As public health groups await the outcome of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG’s legal challenge to India’s patent law, a campaign is building up against a parallel move to obtain 'data exclusivity' on clinical trial data submitted to government for marketing approval.

TRADE: The WTO’s Glass Ceiling

This week's election of the chairpersons of the main World Trade Organisation (WTO) bodies for 2007 went largely unnoticed, as part of the global body's routine procedures. But one aspect stood out: none of the appointed chairs are women.

ECONOMY: India’s Billion Dollar Bids Mark Southward Shift

The acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel manufacturer Corus by India's Tata group signifies a ‘coming of age' of industrial corporations in developing countries. The fact that the two final bidders for the European steelmaker were from Brazil and India, indicates a discernible shift in the global economic power balance.

MALAYSIA: Iran Deal Clouds Free Trade Plans With US

A free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Malaysia, in its final round this week, has run into opposition from trade unions and also from U.S. lawmakers opposed to an energy deal struck between this country and Iran.

ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Prosperity or Pollution?

Following the release of an authoritative United Nations report that unequivocally links human activities with climate change, the rulers of the world's most populous country are faced with the quandary of balancing prosperity against pollution.

TRADE: Play by the Rules, Washington Tells China

The United States said Friday it is taking China before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to complain about Beijing's use of "illegal subsidies".

HEALTH: WHO Chief’s Stand on Generic Drugs Slammed

Civil society and humanitarian groups slammed the new head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on the sidelines of a meeting here, after she appeared to favour the interests of pharmaceutical giants over the plight of the sick and the poor in the developing world.

HEALTH-ASIA: Rat Race on for Clinical Trials Bonanza

Eyeing the expanding market for clinical research in the region, Malaysia is trying to position itself as an ideal place for pharmaceutical majors to conduct clinical trials. But critics worry about weak safeguards and poor enforceability of existing regulations.