Archive - Oct 21, 2005

Brazil's Finance Minister Ant

Representatives of the West African cotton-producing countries have demanded a concrete resolution of the cotton problem at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, as well as a clear indication now that this will be the case, if they are to have any stake in outcomes of the Conference.

The WTO preparations for the Hong Kong Ministerial conference suffered a serious setback Wednesday night when a key meeting on agriculture involving Ministers of five major countries - the US, EU, Brazil, India and Australia - ended abruptly after failing to make any progress. The session scheduled for Thursday was cancelled.

The new Norwegian coalition government (Social democrats, socialist left party and the centre/farmers party) which is backed by a majority in Parliament, has released its declaration for their coming four years in office. The declaration offers at least a rhetorical change around WTO issues.

Trade ministers in two informal trade sessions yesterday and Wednesday put the European Union on notice that it must come up with a substantially revised market access offer on agricultural trade in the ongoing Doha Development Agenda by next Thursday or take the blame for the collapse of the four-year-old talks