World Trade Organisation Archives - Page 5 of 8 - Oxfam Policy & Practice

Briefing paper

The Rural Poverty Trap: Why agricultural trade rules need to change and what UNCTAD XI could do about it

11/06/2004

4 documents

22 pages long

Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish

Keywords

Overview

Many developing countries are stagnating or growing poorer, including their farmers, who comprise two-thirds of the world’s poor. Many of the reasons for this lie in systems of agricultural trade, including the rules of the WTO, the unfair trade policies of rich countries, and falling prices on international commodity markets. Oxfam recommends policy reforms to […]

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Briefing paper

White Gold Turns to Dust: Which way forward for cotton in West Africa?

01/03/2004

2 documents

31 pages long

Languages: English, French

Keywords

Overview

West African farmers continue to face severe deprivation because of depressed cotton prices. One factor is the dumping of exports from the USA, where overproduction is the result of government handouts worth $2.3bn. The US government shamefully disregarded the Africans when they took their complaint to the WTO, but the issue remains high on the […]

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Briefing paper

Robbing the Poor to Pay the Rich? How the United States keeps medicines from the world’s poorest

01/11/2003

1 documents

37 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Impressive advances in medicine and technology have boosted health and extended life expectancy – but not for everyone. Vital new medicines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS are priced out of reach of the millions of sick people in the developing world, in part due to global patent rules which restrict the availability of affordable generic […]

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Briefing paper

Running into the Sand: Why failure at the Cancun trade talks threatens the world’s poorest people

01/08/2003

1 documents

44 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

In September 2003 world trade ministers meet in Cancun Mexico to start a new phase in the Doha ‘development round’. The meeting provides an opportunity to reform the unfair trade rules that systematically disadvantage the world’s poorest countries. Urgent action is needed to stop agricultural dumping, protect access to affordable medicines, improve market access, and […]

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Briefing paper

Dumping Without Borders: How US agricultural policies are destroying the livelihoods of Mexican corn farmers

01/08/2003

1 documents

33 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The Mexican corn sector is in acute crisis because of the influx of cheap subsidised corn imports from the US. Poor Mexican farmers cannot compete against US producers, who receive $10bn a year in subsidies. Action is required at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun in September 2003 to end agricultural dumping, together with action […]

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Briefing paper

People Before Cows: Setting the Standards for Cancun

05/06/2003

1 documents

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

In the light of poor progress in the Doha trade round and the recent failure of the G8 to break through the negotiation deadlock, the June 2003 Africa Trade Ministers’ meeting in Mauritius is a defining moment for the upcoming Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun.

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Briefing note

EU Hypocrisy Unmasked: Why EU trade policy hurts development

05/05/2003

1 documents

8 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

At the opening of the fourth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Doha in November 2001, European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy pledged that ‘Europe has listened, Europe has moved, and Europe is willing to go the extra mile [to make this a development round]’. Such a promise was enough to convince […]

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Journal article

Feminist responses to economic globalisation: some examples of past and future practice

01/05/2003

10 pages long

Free access through journal website

Feminist responses to economic globalisation: some examples of past and future practice

Keywords

Overview

In order to challenge unfair international trade rules, it is essential to understand how each of them works. This article presents an overview of the various agreements concerning different kinds of economic activity, which are enforced by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It aims to make these agreements comprehensible to non-economists, so that proposals to […]

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Briefing paper

Unwanted, Unproductive and Unbalanced: Six arguments against an investment agreement at the WTO

01/05/2003

1 documents

9 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This paper is a response from leading UK development organisations to some specific arguments put forward in support of a multilateral investment agreement (MIA) at the WTO. Rather than reiterate all the arguments against such an agreement, it challenges some particular claims put forward by proponents of an MIA. The paper demonstrates that – despite […]

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Briefing paper

The Emperor’s New Clothes: Why rich countries want a WTO investment agreement

01/04/2003

1 documents

43 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Despite an overcrowded agenda and the lack of progress on matters crucial to development, rich countries, especially members of the European Union, are pushing for the launch of investment negotiations at the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun in September 2003. When properly regulated, foreign investment can contribute to sustainable development. However, […]

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