WTO Members Begin Eyeing Options for Doha Work Programme
With the Bali ministerial now behind them, the process to develop a Doha “work programme” by year’s end is beginning to gear up in Geneva, with WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo urging members last week to use 2014 to get the struggling negotiations “back on track.”
Two months ago, WTO trade ministers were able to announce their first multilateral deal in nearly 20 years. The Bali package, named after the Indonesian island province where it was agreed, also marked the first deliverables from the Doha Round of negotiations, which have been underway since September 2001.
The Future of Public Stockholding
The issue of large-scale public food stockholding programs played a starring role in this month's 9th WTO Ministerial in Bali (for more analysis, read posts by Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla and David Laborde and Luca Salvatici). The resulting ministerial declaration, released on December 7, establishes an interim mechanism that Members can use to navigate the use and management of public food stocks in lieu of a more permanent solution. The declaration calls for a permanent solution to be concluded no later than the 11th Ministerial Conference.
2014 GTAP Conference to Highlight Food Policy, Trade
Since 1998, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) , coordinated by the Center for Global Trade Analysis at Purdue University, has organized an annual conference to promote the exchange of ideas among economists conducting quantitative analysis of global economic issues. In June 2014, the 17th Annual Conference will be co-organized by AGRODEP and held in Dakar, Senegal.
The Road to Bali: WTO Negotiations and Developing Countries
In December, the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference will open in Bali, Indonesia. Agriculture, and the links between trade and poverty alleviation, food security, and environmental sustainability, will appear again as key issues in the negotiations. The new Road to Bali blog series will provide analysis and dialogue about the critical issues being discussed in the official negotiations, civil society, and research circles, with a particular focus on the negotiations' potential implications for developing countries.
Food Security: What's Trade Got to Do with It? Part II
By Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla
In Part I, I mentioned the different channels affecting food and nutrition security, focusing on trade and trade policies. In Part II, I will go into more detail regarding the links between trade, trade policies, and food security, specifically in the context of the WTO.
Food Security: What's Trade Got to Do with It? Part I
By Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla
Export Taxation in the Context of Food Crisis
By Antoine Bouet and David Laborde
The Cost of a Failed Doha Round, Revisited
By Antoine Bouet and David Laborde
Twelve Years of Doha Trade Talks: Where Do We Stand?
By Antoine Bouet and David Laborde
We commit ourselves to comprehensive negotiations aimed at: substantial improvements in market access; reductions of, with a view to phasing out, all forms of export subsidies; and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support. We agree that special and differential treatment for developing countries shall be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations.
—Declaration from the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference. Doha, Qatar, November 14, 2001
Thinking Outside the Agricultural Support Boxes
By Luca Salvatici