TRADE: Spat Over Farm Subsidies Sours Indo-US Ties

While Indo-United States relations have been on an unprecedented high, taking in a civilian nuclear deal signed over a year ago, trade ties between the world's two largest democracies have steadily deteriorated with India heaping blame on the U.S. for a breakdown in trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization(WTO).

HEALTH: Progress on HIV Drugs Threatened by New Trade Pacts

In the midst of the world's biggest HIV/AIDS conference here, close to a hundred activists launched a noisy protest over bilateral free trade agreements, which they say elevate patent protections above the right to life-extending antiretroviral drugs.

TRADE: India, Brazil, S. Africa Ties to Soar on Aerospace

An ambitious attempt to revive South-South economic cooperation around India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) is expected to receive a major fillip when the heads of state of these developing country majors meet in Brazil during the second week of September.

ECONOMY: For African Cotton Farmers, More Crops Equal Less Pay

François Tani - a cotton grower in Koumbia, western Burkina Faso - has cleared extra land this year for cultivation, bringing the total number of hectares he is farming to 28. But, he's under no illusion that a larger harvest will bring him more money.

VIETNAM: Officials Grab Land, Evict Peasants

As this communist country opens its economy to the outside world, it is witnessing a curious phenomenon - misappropriation of land by powerful officials and large-scale evictions of peasants and poor people from their holdings in the name of development.

HEALTH: Thais Make Cheap Generic Drug Against Bird Flu

Having succeeded in producing cheap generic drugs to help people with HIV/AIDS enjoy longer lives, Thailand is now ready with generics capable of helping its citizens fight the onslaught of another deadly virus - bird flu.

TRADE: Requiem for the WTO

Civil society activists, who early on foretold the inevitable collapse of the Doha Round, are now predicting the beginning of the end for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) itself, which sponsored the failed negotiations.

TRADE: Big Business Resists Defeat on WTO Talks

Despite the acrimonious collapse of an agreement on new global trade rules earlier this week, major European and U.S. business lobbies are joining forces to try and revive the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, whose complete failure could spell the loss of major market profits in developing nations.

TRADE: Chinese Flower Power Hits Thai Growers

On the misty hill slopes of northern Thailand the chill in the air encourages roses to grow to a size larger than apples. Hundreds of these large blooms, in colours ranging from red and crimson to orange and white, are harvested daily to feed the flower markets of Bangkok.

CHINA: From Cultural Revolution to Culture Exports

While the world is getting used to China's ballooning global trade surplus, Chinese mandarins fret over the one area that the country has been posting a continuous deficit in - culture.

TRADE-INDIA: Rare Unity Against West’s Farm Subsidies

Setting aside ideological divisions, observers in India have endorsed the government's decision to quit the Doha development round of the World Trade Organisation, rather than compromise on the issue of the West's agricultural subsides that endanger the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers in India and other developing countries.

TRADE: Cheers and Fears Follow Doha Collapse

With the breakdown Monday of the World Trade Organisation's multilateral talks in Geneva known as the Doha Round, anti-poverty and fair trade campaigners appear divided over the implications for developing nations.

TRADE: Noisy Collapse for Doha Round

The breakdown in talks among the leading actors in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) triggered the downfall of the Doha Round Monday, nearly five years after the multilateral trade negotiations were launched - and the European Union and developing countries blamed the United States.

TRADE: Semi-Colon, Not a Full Stop

The collapse of the WTO talks conceded Monday marks a "semi-colon in the process of world trade talks, not a full stop," John Samuel, international director of ActionAid told IPS Monday.

JAPAN: Free Trade Deal With Manila Stumbles Over Labour

While Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of bilateral friendship between Japan and the Philippines, Tokyo has decided not to use the occasion to conclude a long-awaited free trade agreement (FTA) with a fellow Asian country.

RUSSIA: A Step Closer to WTO

The G8 summit in St. Petersburg this week is expected to take Russian membership of the World Trade Organisation a step closer.

POLITICS: China, India Reopen Himalayan Trade Route

In a sign that they were putting more than four decades of bitter relations behind them, Asian giants India and China, this week, reopened an ancient cross-border trade route over this misty, wind-swept pass across the high Himalayas.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: From Value Added to Income Gained

Over 80 percent of Kenyans depend directly on agriculture for their livelihood, according to government statistics. But, certain farmers in the East African country find themselves hard pressed to derive the full benefit from their produce, because they cannot add value to it.

TRADE: “Show Us the Numbers” Says WTO Chief

As trade liberalisation negotiations head into the make-or-break stage, the World Trade Organisation has stepped up pressure to establish concrete numbers for concessions - a none-too-small task given criticisms against the industrialised North's "self interest", and growing divisions among developing countries.

AUSTRALIA: Uranium Exports May Boomerang

As a high-level committee appointed by Prime Minister John Howard is developing plans for a major expansion of the Australian nuclear industry, concerns are being raised that increased uranium exports, especially to China and India, will facilitate further proliferation of nuclear weapons.

ECONOMY: In Singapore, World Bank Seeks Street Protests

Activists familiar with street protests outside the venues of annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are in for a different treat at this year's gathering.