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CUTS CITEE LInkages Update No.3/2003 No.3, 2003 |
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CUTS
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The CUTS-CITEE Linkages Update is a quarterly e-newsletter, which apprises readers on news, information and analysis related to the issue of linkages between trade and labour standards, and trade and environment. If you are receiving this e-newsletter inadvertently, we apologise for the same. Please do let us know to make the necessary changes.
Contents Editor’s
Note News
Roundup Studies
& Reports Events
Report
Let
us think of reforming the WTO The
collapse of trade talks at Cancun confounded even the pessimists. Indeed, the
gulf between the developed and the developing world is a threat to
multilateralism. However,
let us not blame the failure of Cancun talks to the hypocrisy of rich
countries alone. True that many rules of trade and domestic measures of rich
countries are against the interests of the poor. Cotton is a glaring example
how domestic measures (subsidies) in rich countries are depressing world
prices and in the process, posing serious threat to the livelihoods of
millions of poor, particularly in Africa. There was no serious effort at
Cancun to rectify imbalance in international trade in cotton. What public
health was for Doha, cotton could have been for Cancun. At Cancun, no major
developing countries came forward to support these poor countries. Perhaps,
none was listening to them, as cotton was not as lucrative as the
pharmaceutical industry of these developing countries.
Many
are calling for jettisoning the Singapore issues, as many developing countries
are not comfortable with them. True to some extent and it is a fact that at
least on investment there is no economic case for a multilateral agreement at
the WTO, but this alone will not help in curing some of the fundamental
problems of the multilateral trading system. The most important one is
systematic attempts on the part of many countries in downplaying the
principles of multilateralism. Bilateral and regional trade arrangements are
sometimes necessary, but they cannot replace the WTO. Alas,
the big powers are doing exactly the opposite. Immediately after the collapse
of Cancun talks, the US trade representative Robert Zoellick reminded the
world that he has multiple fronts for trade liberalisation. For political
reasons, the EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy echoed something similar,
though he also called for reforms of the WTO system. All of us have to think
seriously how best can we reform the WTO, so that everybody, especially the
poor, enjoy the fruits of trade liberalisation and that Cancun-like situation
does not arise again.
Iceland
kills whale in whale watching bay
Icelandic
whalers have killed a minke whale in a whale-watching bay, just south of
Reykjavik, despite promises from the Ministry of Fisheries that the whalers
would steer clear of whale-watching areas.
Whale-watching operators in Iceland were deeply disappointed by the
government’s broken promises. A whale watching boat carrying overseas tour
operators was close to the scene of the slaughter, but altered by IFAW
(International Fund For Animal Welfare) observers, its captain decided to
change course rather than allow his guests to witness a spectacle likely to
deter them from bringing foreign tourists to Iceland. US
EPA is sued over children’s exposure to pesticides
Four
states and a coalition of public health and farmworker groups sued the US
Environmental Protection Agency for failing to protect children from unsafe
levels of pesticide residue found in food. The plaintiffs, who filed two
separate cases in Manhattan federal court, seek court orders forcing the EPA
to comply with a 1996 law requiring that the agency set pesticide residue
standards 10 times stricter than those considered acceptable for adults. The
attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey
brought one of the suits. An
11-member group that includes the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC),
Pesticide Action Network North America, the Breast Cancer Fund, and the
Physicians for Social Responsibility brought the other case. Both cases focus
on a group of high-risk pesticides used on fruits, vegetables, and nuts
commonly eaten by children. Loss
of wild life in the Baltic Sea The
dramatic loss of marine wildlife recorded last year in the Western Baltic Sea
between Denmark, Germany and Sweden is largely the result of extreme weather
conditions and an increase in man-made nutrients, according to the findings of
a report recently released by the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), to which the
European Commission provided significant input. The
report reveals that the oxygen deficiency was caused in part by heavy rain and
snow, leading to the run off of higher levels of nutrients from agriculture,
urban wastewater and air pollution into the sea. In addition, low wind levels
and high air pressure minimised exchanges between different water levels in
the Baltic. The report recommends stricter controls on nutrients reaching this
inland sea to prevent future oxygen depletion. US
beverage giants asked to quit India Protestors
in India called upon US beverage giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi to quit the
country as they stepped up a “break bottle” campaign launched after a
study said their soft drinks contained lethal doses of pesticides. The
Government of Maharastra has ordered comprehensive tests on the drinks, even
though some reports say initial investigations by state authorities have found
the beverages do in fact adhere to prescribed food and drug norms. The
report of the Delhi-based Centre for Science & Environment claimed 12
leading drinks marketed in India by Coca-Cola and Pepsi had a "deadly
cocktail of pesticide residues" not found in their beverages in the
United States. It said the two manufacturers had failed to purify their source
water in India and that repeated exposure to the fizzy drinks could lead to
cancer, liver and kidney damage and birth defects.
The beverage giants, which have a stranglehold over India's 270-million case a
year carbonated drinks market, have vehemently denied the charges. Bridging
the Differences: Analyses of Fives Issues of the WTO
Agenda
This book, edited by L. Alan Winters and Pradeep S. Mehta, is the
product of a programme known as the EU-India Network on Trade and Development
(EINTAD). The programme was designed both to analyse some of the contentious
issues of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and to attempt to identify
similarities and differences in developed (EU) and developing (India) country
interests, and to help to bridge the differences by providing a sound
analytical basis for thinking about them. As its first initiative, it has
considered five areas - ‘Investment’, ‘Competition’, ‘Mobility of
Labour’, ‘Anti-dumping’ and ‘Textile & Clothing’, involving
teams of European and Indian economists and legal scholars. Comparative
Study of the Legal Provisions of the Six Countries in the Mekong Sub-region
With Respect to Trafficking in Women and Children The
Save the Children Alliance is an association of autonomous, non-profit,
non-sectarian, voluntary organisations working in over 100 countries
throughout the world for the betterment of children, their families and the
environment. All our work is based on the rights of the child, first advocated
by the founders of Save the Children and expressed today in the United
Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child. Comparative
Study of the Legal Provisions of the Six Countries in the Mekong Sub-region
With Respect to Trafficking in Women and Children relates directly to
trafficking and more indirectly to the root causes. This study could be a
resource from which to develop primers informing those working at a community
level of the basic legal concepts and instruments they need in their everyday
work.
Northern
Consumers – Southern Producers: The need for an alliance A
panel discussion on Standards and market Access was organised by Consumer
Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) in collaboration with: Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India, Research and Information
System for the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries (RIS), India,
Consumers Association (CA), UK, South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and
Environment (SAWTEE), Nepal, and International Lawyers and Economists Against
Poverty (ILEAP), Canada at Cancun on 11 September 2003. The
prime objective was of exploring ways and means by which an alliance between
Northern Consumers and Southern Producers can be facilitated on a sustainable
basis. The overarching goal of this discussion and a potential network was to
help promote better understanding of trade relations between Northern
consumers and Southern producers. Perspectives
on Trade and Labour Migration Trade
is not only about the cross-border movement of merchandises. It is also about
people, people moving out of their country to work. Labor migration is not a
new phenomenon, but its formal consideration in multilateral trade treaties is
just starting. What is at stake in this new negotiating issue? What can
developing countries gain from discussions on trade in services on mode 4?
What can we learn from earlier regional experiences? To discuss these
questions, the North-South Institute, Canada and CUTS had organised a session
on trade and labour migration on 13 September 2003 at Cancun. |
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