Search Results for: hong Kong

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HIGHLY undiplomatic exchanges between the European Union (EU) and the United States over the vexed question of cotton subsidies have threatened to obstruct agreement at the already tough parallel talks on general agricultural liberalisation at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong summit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRADE ministers have imposed a tight deadline on World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiators to agree detailed goals of the industrial goods section of its Doha Development Round of liberalisation negotiations – April 30. This is the date by which an overall "modalities" agreement must be struck, which will say how much particular bands (by value) of tariffs must be reduced by all WTO member countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST and probably last draft communiqué for next week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong (Dec 13-18) includes the hopeful goal of setting overall targets for liberalising cotton production subsidies worldwide. This has long been the determined ambition of west African states, who want developed world producers, especially the United States, to stop subsidising their cotton industries, payments that depress world prices, impeding exports from low-wage developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE KENYAN trade minister charged with pushing forward compromise on agricultural issues at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit has called on his colleagues to abandon political caution to make a deal possible. Mukhisa Kituyi said at the summit’s first agriculture meeting: "Our diplomats in Geneva and our experts from capitals have not succeeded (in lower level talks) and now it is for ministers to show leadership and take responsibility and calculated risks."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE KENYAN trade minister charged with pushing forward compromise on agricultural issues at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit has called on his colleagues to abandon political caution to make a deal possible. Mukhisa Kituyi said at the summit’s first agriculture meeting: “Our diplomats in Geneva and our experts from capitals have not succeeded (in lower level talks) and now it is for ministers to show leadership and take responsibility and calculated risks.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AUTO manufacturing firms will be closely monitoring next week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong for signs that the WTO’s long-running Doha Development Round talks are about to crack open national automobile markets. Key auto industry countries – the US, the European Union, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and Brazil – have been making steady progress this year in identifying non-tariff barriers to trade they would like to remove, such as burdensome customs procedures, technical engineering rules and licences.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRADE ministers at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong summit are struggling today to reach a compromise deal on the vexed question of cotton subsidies that will prevent west African exporters scuppering an overall agreement. The United States has been under pressure to abandon its production payments to American growers, which are highly politically sensitive in the US.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) general council has permanently amended the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to make permanent a 2003 waiver helping poor countries obtain generic medicines during health emergencies. The TRIPS amendment enables any WTO member country to export generic pharmaceuticals made under a compulsory licence to assist countries lacking their own manufacturing capacity and whose nurses and doctors would otherwise be unable to deal with a serious disease problem.…

BY TAMARA VANTROYEN in Hong Kong

HONG Kong’s higher education system’s gradual move away from the British system of education to one that is more aligned with the US and mainland China models, is leading to a proliferation of associate degrees (ADs) springing up in Hong Kong.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TRADE ministers meeting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong last night (Sunday) set a tight timetable for agreeing of the Doha Development Round’s overall goals on agricultural liberalisation, saying these long discussed ‘modalities’ must be approved by April 30.…