The eighth ministerial of the World Trade Organisation was on the surface an inconsequential meeting of an organisation fighting a descent into irrelevance. But there were attempts by the powerful economies to craft a plurilateral approach that would keep out the majority of WTO member countries.

Third complaint against Chinese companies flouting rules filed. Probe underway. The trade dispute between the US and China over renewable energy equipment is growing shriller. The Wind Tower Trade Coalition (WTTC), a coalition of producers of wind towers in the US, has filed a complaint with the US Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission seeking anti-dumping and countervailing investigations into the Chinese and Vietnamese wind towers imports in the US market. Two similar probes against China are already underway.

Actors at the local, national and global level, through their policies, institutional structure and processes, influence livelihood decisions irrespective of geographical setting. The introduction of intellectual property rights (IPR) under the WTO regime demonstrates how decisions taken at an international level affect millions of livelihoods across the globe. This has necessitated national governments to introduce new laws and legislation such as the enactment of Geographical Indications Act of India in 1999.

Reed Beall and Randall Kuhn describe their findings from an analysis of use of compulsory licenses for pharmaceutical products by World Trade Organization members since 1995.

Original Source

The General Agreement on Trade in Services does impose limits on many developing countries’ ability to regulate the financial sector. A response to the article “Regulatory Freedom under GATS: Financial Services Sector” which argued otherwise.

Countries protect their renewable energy equipment. Exporting nations see it as trade barrier. The world is witnessing an increase in trade disputes in the renewable energy sector. Countries are trying to strengthen their renewable energy base by preferring indigenous products over imports. This is an obvious dampener for countries with good renewable energy equipment manufacturing capabilities and advanced technology. They argue that such policy measures hinder free trade. Their complaints at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are piling up. India is the latest to be in the spotlight.