Global Partnerships

22.12.2005 The National Social Watch Coalition and ActionAid India provide the latest information and news from Hong Kong. The information has been provided in the form of two newsletters in PDF - wto news6.pdf and wto news8.pdf.

22.12.2005 Work is on in full swing at this remote and dusty railway station in Barmer district of Rajasthan in north-west India, to meet the deadline for resumption of the historic rail link between India and Pakistan. The two countries have, in the last few months, improved people-to-people relationships by opening up their borders.

21.12.2005 The protests and demonstrations outside the Hong Kong Convention Centre were more telling than the predictable negotiations inside it, reports John Samuel. They indicated that the WTO debate is spilling out of the mystified ivory towers of policy into the political domain of the streets and slums.

21.12.2005 Modest progress has been made towards the goal of forging a global trade pact by late 2006, at the WTO Ministerial meet that concluded in Hong Kong. But the development agenda was not served by the talks’ final declaration, hammered out after much wrangling.

20.12.2005 The final text salvaged from around-the-clock global trade talks here sets a deadline to end farm export subsidies by rich nations, a long-time demand by developing nations, but also binds poorer countries to more dramatically open their markets to multinational corporations.

19.12.2005 The snippets from Dr Nilay Ranjan from OneWorld South Asia's, who has attending the World Trade Organisation meet at Hong Kong.

19.12.2005 snipppets from OneWorld South Asia's Dr Nilay Ranjan, who attended the World Trade Organisation meet at Hong Kong.

19.12.2005 Sugar industry associations from 11 major producing countries like India, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Guatemala, Argentina, Honduras have come under an umbrella called the Global Alliance for Sugar Trade Reforms (GASTR). GASTR members held a mee ting on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial at Hong Kong and have outlined their strategy.

15.12.2005 Decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau is headed to the world's largest ship-breaking yard - India - for being taken apart. This will also result in thousands of kgs of toxic wastes being exported to the country which will pose a hazard to both environment and people.

15.12.2005 India on Wednesday called for a multilateral trade negotiation process that does not disrupt the growth strategies of developing countries. Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said that development was not adjunct to the global trading system but intrinsic to every aspect of the ongoing negotiations under the Doha Development Round.