WTO-SPECIAL: Family Farming Vs. Agribusiness in Brazil

The farm subsidies that underwrite the "dumping" of products on a market at below cost and that distort international trade should be abolished, but not the support for family farming that forms part of rural development and food security policies.

WTO-SPECIAL: China Sits Out Its Own Party

If United States’ trade officials are critical of China’s aloof attitude towards the upcoming global trade talks, held in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, they have a point.

WTO-SPECIAL: Disillusion in Southern Africa Ahead of Trade Summit

Campaigners from Southern Africa are bracing for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to be held in Hong Kong later this month. Some plan to send representatives to the meeting, to protest against unfair trade legislation – particularly as this relates to agriculture.

WTO-SPECIAL: Egypt Cottons On To Its Interests

Like other countries in the region, Egypt has much to sell but runs into barriers. And like others, it wants something to emerge from the trade ministers meeting in Hong Kong later this month to break those barriers - amidst doubts that this will happen.

WTO-SPECIAL: Getting the Jargon Right

Ask Sompal Chaudhuri, a farmer in western Uttar Pradesh, what he thinks of the WTO and he will tell you that those three letters, in a language he does not understand, have something to do with dwindling demand for the mustard oil seed he grows.

TRADE: Hong Kong Hangs on a (Cotton) Thread

Cotton could be the main catalyst for failure at the Dec. 13-18 sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in Hong Kong if the demands of African countries are not addressed.

TRADE-US: Groups Declare War on Cheap Chinese Exports

The decision by the George W. Bush administration Monday not to name China as a "currency manipulator" has disappointed industry and labour groups here, which say they will resort to international institutions and the U.S. Congress for tougher action.

ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Rural Folk Take Brunt of ‘GDP Mania’

As China grappled with the political and social fallout of trying to cover up a toxic spill in the country's impoverished north-east, rural communities emerged as the most forsaken in government responses to environmental hazards caused by rapid industrialisation.

COMMONWEALTH: The Aftermath Will Tell, If There Is One

How much the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta achieved - or did not - could be known better in Barcelona than in could be in Valletta.

TRADE: The U.S. Gets a Sort of Vote

The Commonwealth adopted a declaration Friday asking the European Union to follow the U.S. example in taking the stalled Doha development round of trade negotiations forward.

COMMONWEALTH: New Call to Bypass Hong Kong

In a bold new move, business leaders from Commonwealth countries have proposed a free trade area of their own if the Hong Kong summit next month fails to deliver a trade agreement.

COMMONWEALTH: Another Month, Another Island

The Commonwealth heads of government meeting taking place in Malta from Friday this week could turn out to be the most definite indication yet that little can be expected at the world trade ministers meeting in Hong Kong next month.

TRADE: Andean Community Integration Feels Strain of Discrepancies

Trade agreements are one thing and integration is another, "so dissatisfaction with the former should not deter us from the latter," according to Allan Wagner, secretary-general of the Andean Community, who is trying to paper over the cracks in Latin America's oldest trade bloc.

TRADE: Bush to Nudge Asians on Stalled Talks

When U.S. President George W. Bush meets Asian leaders on Friday and Saturday, he will discuss the threats of avian flu, terrorism and North Korea's nuclear capabilities, but stalled global trade talks are likely to take centre-stage.

TRADE-LATIN AMERICA: Is an ‘FTAA Lite’ a Real Possibility?

Most of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean want a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), even in a less ambitious form, as opposed to a handful of nations - albeit an economically powerful minority - that reject the idea.

TRADE: China Cedes to U.S. Textile Demands

The United States and China reached a broad deal Tuesday that would regulate their textile trade through 2008, after Washington complained of surging Chinese imports, officials from both nations said.

HEALTH: Threats Get Vietnam Rights to Make Bird Flu Drug

Threats by Vietnam that it would begin unlicenced manufacture of the anti-viral drug 'Tamiflu', to contain a possible pandemic of bird flu, seem to have induced the patent holder Roche to grant the country the right to produce the drug locally.

TRADE: Drop Expectations from WTO Meet

An informal summit in London Monday night brought clear indications that little agreement can be expected at a meeting of ministers in Hong Kong next month to agree a new trade deal.

AMERICAS: Integration Remains an Elusive Concept

If the fourth Summit of the Americas left anything clear, it is the difficulty of reaching agreement on a concept of integration in the region.

SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: Leaders Agree to Disagree on FTAA

After a debate that stretched hours past the scheduled closing time, the fourth Summit of the Americas ended Saturday in the Argentine resort of Mar del Plata with a final declaration that clearly reflects the divergent views among governments in the region with respect to the future of the FTAA.

SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: FTAA, Unruly Protesters Crash the Party

The opening of the fourth Summit of the Americas Friday was marked by a heated controversy among the hemisphere's leaders over the future of Americas-wide trade integration, while activists caused disturbances outside the 20-block area that was cordoned off for the meeting.