Posts filed under 'International Aid and Development'
November 6th, 2009 at 11:25am
Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, recently released a statement describing the progress of the Doha Round and outlining plans for the continued negotiations in Geneva. Overall, Lamy reports that while the negotiations remain committed to their ambitions, there has been little tangible progress in the past week. He also emphasizes that ambitions will be best served in the future through multilateral text-based negotiations.
In the area of Agriculture, members are discussing market access issues with regard to tariff caps and tariff-rate quotas, while also developing a template for scheduling commitments. Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) deliberations are occurring in several different formats, with both text-based debate and open-ended discussion over non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade.
Services discussions will now focus on domestic regulation through intensified text-based negotiations. Meanwhile, the Rules Group is honing in on anti-dumping and subsidies guidelines as well as regional trade agreements (RTAs). Deliberation on geographic identifications (GIs) for wine and spirits will also be more focused as members address four specific questions posed by the chair to encourage progress.
A new trade facilitation agreement is under formulation as members work to consolidate General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Articles for further negotiation. Additionally, the Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTESS) has allowed members to discuss environmental goods and services during a September workshop and is now encouraging members to highlight environmental goods of interest.
Small Group negotiations will continue on the Monitoring Mechanism for Special and Differential Treatment, occasionally requiring open-ended meetings for group debriefing. The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) will now discuss post-retaliation and compliance, having addresses transparency, amicus briefs and remand earlier this year.
For further information, please click here.
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March 30th, 2009 at 06:16am
On Friday, March 20, the African Ministers of Trade concluded a two-day meeting. The Ministers discussed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, Aid for Trade, and other trade initiatives and issues at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Meeting during their Fifth Ordinary Session, the Ministers sought to create common ground between constituent states. They pressed for the creation of time-lines and for the unification of positions between countries in EPA negotiations. During the closing ceremony, Commissioner Elizabeth Tankeu reemphasized the need for Africans to speak with a strong and united voice within the international community.
The Ministers also discussed the impact of the financial crisis on African countries. Ato Girma Briu, Minister of Trade and Industry for the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, argued that the financial crisis was not created by African countries. Instead, the Ethiopian minister blamed “the greed of certain financial operators in Western countries and the failure of their regulators to excise adequate control and supervision over the operators.” According to Briu, global demand for goods and services produced in Africa has witnessed “a sharp decline,” as a result of the crisis. This, coupled with decreases in development aid and financial investment will have “adverse implications for…the reduction of poverty and the attainment of political and social stability on our continent.”
For more information, read the press release, or read statements by delegates here and here.
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March 25th, 2009 at 09:00am
The United Nations released a new report last week on pirate activity in Somalia. The report identifies two main groups of pirates, but is especially concerned that the piracy network based in the northern Puntland region of the country, known as the Eyle Group, is collaborating with regional government officials. Despite these accusations, many political leaders in Puntland have recommitted to fighting the piracy problem.
In 2008 there were a total of 111 attacks on ships, a 200% increase over 2007, and there have been seven incidents in January and February of this year. Somalia’s government collapsed in 1991 and foreign vessels flooded the country’s territorial waters, drawn by the prospect of unlimited and unregulated fishing. Somali leaders say that piracy is an offshoot of the wider problem of illegal fishing, and the UN report stresses that restoring order within Somalia is critical to solving the piracy problem.
The UN is especially concerned about transporting food aid because approximately 95% of food aid to Somalia arrives by sea and approximately 2.4 million people rely on that aid for survival. NATO, the EU, Russia, and China are all contributing to a policing fleet in Somalia, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged UN member states in the region to contribute any naval resources they can spare to combating piracy.
For more information, please click here and here.
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March 21st, 2009 at 06:37pm
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir rallied Arab supporters in Darfur by stating no war crimes court or the U.N. Security Council can touch “even an eyelash” on him in response the the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest order for him. President al-Bashir denounced the west for trying to “create chaos in Sudan” and attempting to split Darfur from the rest of the country.
The ICC accuses President al-Bashir of orchestrating the atrocities against civilians in Darfur. 2.7 million have been driven from their homes while as many as 300,000 people have been killed. In response to the arrest warrant, the Sudanese government expelled 13 large foreign aid agencies, mostly those operating in Darfur. According to U.N. estimates, the expulsion of these groups threatens more than 3 million people with the loss of food, health care, and suitable drinking water. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the Sudanese president to reverse the expulsion order because of the humanitarian crisis.
For further information, please click here.
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February 1st, 2009 at 05:26pm
Ten months after Zimbabwe’s presidential election, the country’s main opposition party has announced that it is ready to establish a unity government with President Robert Mugabe. The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, won a majority of votes in the presidential election in March. He did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff and eventually withdrew from the race, accusing Mugabe of violence against MDC supporters. In what was widely regarded by the international community as a fraudulent election, Mugabe won the runoff in June.
The MDC and Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, agreed in September to share power in a unity government. However, the agreement has been hindered by a lack of agreement on key issues, such as the distribution of key Cabinet posts amongst the two parties and the control of security forces. The decision by the MDC to recommit to the unity government was conditional on the country’s constitution being amended to include the position of Prime Minister (which Tsvangirai would hold) and all opposition supporters arrested since the election being released. A deadline of February 11th was set by the MDC and members of the Southern African Development Community; Zimbabwe’s government did not issue an immediate response.
The agreement has been praised by international leaders, particularly because the country is in the midst of a deadly cholera epidemic. The UN will release $8 million from its emergency fund to combat the spread of the disease, which has infected 60,000 people and killed 3,100 in Zimbabwe. The crisis has been exacerbated in the country by a shortage of food (more than half of the country’s population relies on food aid) and safe drinking water. Inadequate sanitation and insufficient health care infrastructure have also been contributing factors. Assistant Director-General for the World Health Organization’s Health Action in Crises Cluster, Eric Laroche, described the situation as “an extraordinary public health crisis” that will require swift action to prevent additional outbreaks in Zimbabwe and spillover epidemics in other southern African nations.
For further information, please click here and here
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November 10th, 2008 at 11:25am
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon encouraged the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring nations (namely, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and South Africa) to take “urgent measures to contain the present crisis created by the upsurge of fighting in eastern DRC” at a UN-backed summit hosted by the African Union on November 7. He expressed deep concern at fresh fighting in the province of North Kivu between Government forces (FARDC) and the National Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP) and stressed that the escalation of violence would be felt not only by the Congolese people but across the region. He called for efforts to broker a political solution, which would involve a ceasefire, disengagement of troops, and disarmament of armed groups. In addition, he requested that the Security Council add 3,000 troops to reinforce the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, known as MONUC. Currently, 5,000 peacekeepers are in North Kivu, trying to carry out MONUC’s mandate to protect civilians from the violence. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the total number of internally displaced people in North Kivu since September is now estimated at 252,000, in addition to the existing 800,000 displaced from earlier hostilities.
For further information, please click here.
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November 10th, 2008 at 11:23am
On November 4th and 5th, the Ministers of Economy and senior officials from seven Central Asian countries met for a conference hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all had representatives in attendance. The goal of the meeting was for the parties to form an initiative to improve the business climate in the region. Foreign direct investment in the area is low, and it is hoped that cooperation will help to establish a more hospitable climate for business activity. International stakeholders such as the European Commission will assist the initiative through the formation of working groups to provide advice on addressing common challenges.
For more information, please click here
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November 1st, 2008 at 07:15am
The British Virgin Islands, Guernsey and Jersey signed sixteen new bilateral tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with various OECD countries. Since 2000 the OECD has been working with financial centers across the globe to sign TIEAs in order to increase the transparency and accountability of cross-border transactions. Recently, TIEAs have taken on increased importance due to the global financial crisis and various tax evasion scandals. According to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, “The political climate is changing, and financial centers that do not respect the OECD standards will not be allowed to gain a competitive advantage…It is in the interest of all financial centers to have adequate measures in favor of full transparency as quickly as possible.”
This is the third such bilateral agreement signed by the British Virgin Islands; Jersey has signed 10 and Guernsey nine. Other financial centers are making progress towards full exchange of information, including Cyprus, Malta and Belgium. Additionally, the government of Hong Kong has recently taken steps to review its exchange of information policy.
For more information, click here.
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October 31st, 2008 at 04:35pm
Violence has broken out in Congo as forces loyal to former Congolese General Laurent Nkunda launch attacks on government troops. These rebel forces are believed to be preparing a strike on the city of Goma. Only ten months ago, rebel groups met in Goma to sign a peace agreement. As a result of the rising violence, almost 45,000 refugees have fled to a U.N. refugee camp outside of the city. The U.N. is attempting to prevent forthcoming raids by deploying attack helicopters to the region.
Spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Sean McCormack, has stressed the United States’ support of U.N. peacekeeping efforts, and McCormack has urged Mr. Nkunda to resume talks with the DRC government. In a statement made on October 28, McCormack said, “The U.S. calls on all parties to the Goma Agreements and the Nairobi Communiqué to respect their commitments and renounce the use of arms.”
The United States has been a long-time supporter of the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission in Congo. Since 1998, the U.S. has delivered over $220 million in emergency aid to victims of the conflict, and has also played a role in efforts to enhance stability in Congo and surrounding regions.
For more information, please click here.
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October 8th, 2008 at 12:20am
The top UN envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has asked for an increase in the number of peacekeepers in the country (in addition to the 19,000 already there), expressing alarm about the renewal of hostilities in the eastern provinces. Alan Doss, Special Representative for the DRC, expressed concern that the Congo may plunge back into a civil war, pinpointing the provinces of North Kivu, where ethnic tensions have risen, and Orientale, where Ugandan rebel armies have launched attacks. While granting that the peacebuilding budget is limited and that the peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC) needs to maximize its current resources, Mr. Doss stressed that armed groups must be dealt with, if the rule of law is not to give way to “the rule of gun.”
MONUC was set up in 1999 to help enforce the ceasefire of the civil war and restore peace and stability. Since then, the UN has helped to organize elections and maintain relative calm.
For further information, please click here.
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