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NGOs: 'Mini-Ministerial Meeting Should Change WTO Tack on Food,' Promote Food Sovereignty

Indian farmers hold on to a railing as they watch their fellow farmers take out a protest rally against World Trade Organization (WTO) in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Trade officials from 35 countries are meeting in New Delhi for a WTO informal Ministerial meeting being hosted by India. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)

GENEVA - A group of 125 non-governmental organisations from 50 countries is calling on the governments participating in the mini-ministerial trade talks in India over the next two days to reject the further liberalisation of food and rather promote policies that will achieve food security and rural development and safeguard farmers' livelihoods.

Posted in agriculture, food crisis, localism, wto

El Salvador's Gold Fight

As El Salvador transitions from decades of conservative rule to the administration of leftist President Mauricio Funes, the country faces an international showdown triggered by a restrictive free-trade agreement between the United States and Central America. Canada's Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is suing the government for its refusal to allow it to mine gold in El Salvador's rural north. If Pacific Rim succeeds in securing the $100 million settlement it seeks, that would set a troubling precedent.

Posted in global trade, globalization, mining, wto, el salvador

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2008
4:05 PM

CONTACT: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460

Attempt to Convene Another Last-Minute WTO 'Mini-Ministerial' Collapses in the Midst of Global Recession

WASHINGTON - December 12 - Today, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy dropped his latest attempts to push through a conclusion to the Doha Round of WTO expansion by suspending his call for yet another "mini-Ministerial" meeting this month in Geneva. Talks aimed at building sufficient consensus to justify the potential mini-Ministerial broke down this week over additional U.S. demands that developing countries, particularly China and Brazil, reduce their tariffs on certain sectors of industrial goods in their economies to zero.

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The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. CEPR's Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Janet Gornick, Professor at the CUNY Graduate School and Director of the Luxembourg Income Study; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.
Posted in financial crisis, inequality, wto
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