WTO Hong Kong Talks Close in Bemusement

WTO trade ministers concluded their 6th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong late on 18 December 2005.The agreement was concluded after six days of negotiations ending with a night long session ending on Sunday morning. In keeping with the low expectations for the meeting that were announced in mid-November, negotiators indeed failed to bridge gaps on key matters, in particular the …

WTO Draft Hong Kong Text Issued

The WTO’s Director General, Pascal Lamy, and Chairperson of the General Council, Ambassador Amina Mohamed of Kenya, released their proposal for a draft Hong Kong Ministerial Text on Saturday 26 November 2005. Although the text is technically a joint effort by the Chair and the Director General, the document is clearly a secretariat text and has already been dubbed ‘The …

Afro-Asian Trade Pact in the Making

South Africa and its custom’s union partners in SACU are potentially headed for an Afro-Asian free trade agreement (“FTA”) by the end of the fist decade of the millennium. This is due to a potentially unforeseen eventuality, now a reality, that while SACU has undertaken what is in itself a mammoth task of negotiating free trade agreements with both China …

Ambitions Fall as Egos Rise at the WTO

It seems that the mini ministerial discussion in Geneva on Monday night and Tuesday this week has made hot fudge (sweet, pleasant but unclear) with the next step in the Doha Agenda’s negotiation process. There has not been a convergence between the US, EU and G20 positions tabled up to last week. There seemed to be a determined view from …

Have your say on South Africa’s Negotiation Stance

The WTO’s 6th Ministerial Conference will be held in Hong Kong from 13-18 December 2005. Diplomatically South Africa has a leading role to play in bridging the development agenda of the African contingent with that of the more reformist development position in the more widely constituted ‘Group of 20’ developing country contingent. However, more importantly, on a functional level trade …

WTO Agriculture Seeds Watered This Week

This week in Geneva the special negotiation session on agricultural trade will recommence under the leadership of a new Chair, New Zealand’s Ambassador Crawford Falconer, ominously dubbed: ‘The Falcon’. Falconer takes over as former Chair, Tim Groser, exits the stage at the behest of the New Zealand government in a domestic political upset. The upset sees Groser fall out of …

New WTO Chief Starts Today

Spring day in the South sees a new broom that is expected to ‘sweep clean’ at the WTO in Geneva. Pascal Lamy of France today takes over the helm as Director General of the WTO, one of the world’s most influential jobs in the arena of multilateral organisations. The appointment, announced in May, sees the departure of Thailand’s Supachai Panitchpakdi, …

Minister wants wine producers to label on health

Wine producers may shortly have to display warning messages, similar to those on tobacco products, on wine bottles.The Minister of Health, Me Tshabalala-Msimang, published draft regulations on 11 February 2005 in terms of which all alcoholic beverages shall need to carry one of the prescribed health warnings on the container’s label. Such warnings include, “Don’t drink and walk on the …