27 resultsFilter
- (-) Remove 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda filter 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda
- (-) Remove CLIMATE AND ENERGY filter CLIMATE AND ENERGY
- (-) Remove 2017 filter 2017
- (-) Remove Agriculture filter Agriculture
- (-) Remove English filter English
- (-) Remove LDCs filter LDCs
- (-) Remove News filter News
- (-) Remove Water filter Water
- (-) Remove AGRICULTURE filter AGRICULTURE
7 December 2017
International agencies and farm leaders have welcomed the decision to launch a work programme on climate and agriculture, which was endorsed by governments at the annual conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) three weeks ago in Bonn, Germany. Language in the preamble...
30 November 2017
Agriculture has long been central to trade talks at the WTO, despite only small steps forward in the 23 years since members first endorsed global rules on farm trade. Cutting trade-distorting farm subsidies and improving access to markets were key elements of the Doha Round negotiations, which...
23 November 2017
As trade talks in Geneva enter the final stretch, WTO negotiators have tabled new proposals on agriculture for the Buenos Aires ministerial that begins in just over two weeks. They have also put forward suggestions for a work programme to deal with unresolved topics after the conference takes place...
9 November 2017
Over the past fortnight, a series of WTO members have put forward new proposals involving different aspects of the agriculture talks, including on trade-distorting domestic support, public stockholding for food security purposes, and on the quality and enforcement of notification requirements. In...
30 October 2017
In this article the author argues for the need to speed up implementation of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Export Competition and work towards the elimination of agricultural export subsidies. There are commercial reasons to do so. The World Trade Organization’s Eleventh Ministerial...
19 October 2017
A slate of new negotiating proposals on farm subsidies and cotton reflect different views on how to balance ambitious demands with realism in the run-up to the WTO’s eleventh ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this December, trade sources have said. As negotiators prepare to meet...
5 October 2017
The EU has scrapped domestic production quotas for sugar, in a long-awaited move which analysts say is set to boost the bloc’s output and dampen global prices. The reform, which was implemented on 30 September, will remove limits on the volume of sugar that EU beet growers can produce. It was first...
21 September 2017
The Kenyan ambassador who chairs the WTO’s negotiations on agriculture has issued a new informal paper mapping the “state of play” in the talks ahead of a ministerial-level meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, in early October. Trade sources told Bridges that the Marrakesh meeting will be key in...
27 July 2017
Governments must “significantly accelerate” their work on farm trade topics ahead of the WTO’s eleventh ministerial conference in Buenos Aires this December, says a new report from the chair of the agriculture negotiations, Kenyan ambassador Stephen Karau. The report, prepared for a negotiating...
20 July 2017
The EU, Brazil, and three other Latin American countries have tabled a new proposal on farm subsidy reform for negotiation ahead of the WTO’s eleventh ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this December. Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay also co-sponsored the proposal, which was submitted...
13 July 2017
Japan’s levels of trade-distorting agricultural support showed a slight drop in 2013 and 2014, according to new data that the country reported to the global trade body earlier this month. At just over ¥900 billion (US$9 billion at historical exchange rates for that period), trade-distorting support...
6 July 2017
The European Commission has set out five scenarios for the bloc’s financial future, including on agriculture, sparking reactions from farmers, environmental groups, and other stakeholders. The scenarios, which the EU’s executive arm presented in a “ reflection paper ” on 28 June, could...
15 June 2017
Eighteen months after WTO members agreed to eliminate agricultural export subsidies at the global trade body’s tenth ministerial conference in Nairobi, Kenya, the organisation’s regular committee on agriculture met for its special annual review of progress in this area. A detailed document prepared...
8 June 2017
The chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations, Kenyan Ambassador Stephen Karau, has suggested that farm trade talks on domestic support may need to continue beyond the organisation’s eleventh ministerial conference, scheduled to take place this December in the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires...
1 June 2017
The US Administration has proposed deep cuts to farm subsidies, along with domestic and international food aid, as part of its larger budget proposal published late last month. While farm organisations have publicly disagreed with the suggested cuts, other groups have criticised reductions in both...
29 May 2017
In this article, the authors argue that the pressing challenge in the ABPU region, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, is neither the water nor carbon footprint generated by food exports. Rather, the main problem is how to tackle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the broad regional...
24 May 2017
The Cairns Group of agricultural exporting countries has called for action on farm trade issues for the WTO’s upcoming ministerial conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this December, tabling an informal paper that notes “overwhelming” support for an outcome on agricultural domestic support. The...
27 April 2017
Kenyan Ambassador Stephen Karau told WTO members on Wednesday 26 April that he would seek to pick up talks on agricultural trade from where they had left off, in the first negotiating session he convened as the new chair on the topic. WTO members agreed on 7 April that Karau would take over the...
13 April 2017
Governments agreed on Friday 7 April that the Kenyan Ambassador to the WTO, Stephen Karau, will chair negotiations on agricultural trade issues at the Geneva-based organisation, breaking months of deadlock over who should take on the role. Karau was confirmed alongside other trade officials taking...
30 March 2017
A continued disagreement among governments over who should chair the WTO’s farm trade negotiations overshadowed talks in the global trade body’s regular committee on agriculture this week, sources said. New Zealand Ambassador Vangelis Vitalis, who was appointed to chair the farm trade talks in...