south-north development monitor - SUNS [Email Edition]

SUNS #4362
Thursday, 28 January 1999

contents

Trade: WTO/DSB skidding on banana peel (Chakravarthi Raghavan, Geneva)

Trade: WTO DG choice still up in the air (Chakravarthi Raghavan, Geneva)

Trade: Seattle chosen by US as site for WTO ministerial (TWN, Geneva)

Environment: Talks for banning most dangerous chemicals (IPS, Nairobi)

Health: World Health Organisation in a squeeze (IPS, Geneva)

Development: New battle looms over World Bank watchdog (IPS, Washington)

Development: South vulnerable to 'Millennium Bug' (IPS, Washington)

Excerpts from selected articles:

Trade: WTO/DSB skidding on banana peel

Geneva, 27 Jan (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- If a banana or a bunch of bananas had been subject to the kind of handling that the banana dispute has been getting at the WTO, by now it would have become a mushy, unedible pulp to be thrown away and the mess cleaned up.

But the US-EC banana marketing dispute has now become such a high-profile mess that whichever way it is resolved, the WTO would not find it easy to go on pretending that it is a "rule-based system" and is an institution protecting the rights of small nations and members (as a senior WTO official claimed at last week's economic meetings at Havana, in Cuba).

On Tuesday, after what trade officials called a "highly technical and legal" discussion of procedures, of the loosely worded rules of the WTO and its Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the US and the EC (and the WTO Director-General) have been asked to try and resolve the substance of banana dispute, before the DSB meets Thursday.........

Trade: WTO DG choice still up in the air

Geneva, 26 Jan (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- A meeting of the General Council over the selection of a successor to the WTO Director-General held Tuesday does not seem to have produced any clear movement towards a choice from among the four candidates for the post.

And there were renewed reports in the WTO corridors, among delegations, that if the impasse is not quickly broken, there would be moves by the (United States) either to continue Mr. Renato Ruggiero or to bring in an outsider.

The name of Uruguay's Enrique Iglesias, who is now heading the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank has again gained currency, with some Latin American sources saying "Iglesias is waiting to be called, and his place at the IDB would be taken by a Brazilian".

The four in the running are Supachai of Thailand, Abouyoub of Morocco, Moore of New Zealand and MaClaren of Canada.........

Trade: Seattle chosen by US as site for WTO ministerial

Geneva, 26 Jan (TWN) -- The United States has now picked on Seattle as the site for the 3rd Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (to be held 30 November to 3 December 1999). The announcement about Seattle as the site was announced in Washington by the US Trade Representative, Mrs. Charlene Barshefsky.

The United States Information Service bulletin in Geneva in reporting this quoted Barshefsky as saying that the meeting "will launch global negotiations to further open markets in goods, services, and agriculture trade.".............

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