wtoWorld Trade Organisation members were on Friday making an eleventh hour effort to rescue the Doha trade round, as the European Union faced near-total isolation in the 149-member body over its refusal to agree to a date for ending agricultural export subsidies.
In an attempt to avert the threat of breakdown at this weekâs six-day ministerial meeting, which ends on Sunday, Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general, called an all-night negotiating session aimed at hammering out a draft declaration that would narrow wide rifts between governments.
Mr Lamy acted after about 90 poor nations, many normally loyal to the EU, joined the Group of 20 developing-country agriculture exporters, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to demand that the six-day meeting set 2010 as the deadline for ending export subsidies. The US, although not part of the informal coalition, also backs the demand.
However, the EU refused to budge. It insisted it would agree to a deadline only if the US pledged to reform its export credits and food aid programmes, and Australia, Canada and New Zealand agreed to dismantle agricultural state trading monopolies. Brussels says the schemes distort trade by subsidising exports.
Peter Mandelson, trade commissioner, accused the EUâs opponents of losing sight of the Doha roundâs strategic objectives by concentrating on agriculture at the expense of other issues, such as liberalisation of goods and services.
âThere is no reconciliation yet and no clear basis for negotiation. Between the lines, the emerging direction of the meeting is very worrying,â he said. âIn the main trade areas of discussion, the level of ambition is going backwards.â
Other ministers accused the EU of intransigence and challenged it to produce evidence that food aid and trading monopolies distorted trade. Mark Vaile, Australiaâs trade minister, said the EUâs offer to reduce farm tariffs was also unacceptably low.
The EUâs 25 members backed Mr Mandelsonâs tough stand, after what participants said were tense discussions. Southern European governments, led by France, were said to favour a continued hard line, while Britain and the Nordic countries were anxious not rule out eventual options for compromise.
#1
Since agricultural subsidies are near and dear to the French govt heart (now there is an oxy-moroon for ya), they will not back down on the subsidies without a fight. Popcorn, anyone?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/17/2005 11:05 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Mr Lamy acted after about 90 poor nations, many normally loyal to the EU, joined the Group of 20 developing-country agriculture exporters, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to demand that the six-day meeting set 2010 as the deadline for ending export subsidies. The US, although not part of the informal coalition, also backs the demand.
#3
"... only if the US pledged to reform its export credits and food aid programmes."
This seems to say that the EU will only buy food from the poor if the US lets Pakistani earthquake victims starve. I would consider that point of view to be morally confused.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/17/2005 12:46 Comments ||
Top||
A Dutch court has found two men guilty of illegally exporting materials to Pakistan that could be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Dutch businessman Henk S., 61, and his business Zoran F., 37, sent the materials, which required an export licence, to the Institute of Industrial Automation in Pakistan, which was linked to Khan Research Laboratories (KRL).
KRL, run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, was the driving force behind Pakistan's development of a nuclear arsenal. S. was the Dutch business partner of Khan, who is believed to have stolen plans from a lab in the Netherlands in the 1970s, helping him to become the father of the Islamic A-bomb.
The court sentenced S., 61, from Sint Pancras to 12-months in jail, with the last eight months suspended. F., Heerhugowaard, was ordered to do 180 hours community service.
The exports by the company headed by S. took place between 1999 and 2002. F. coordinated the transaction.
The prosecution had sought an 18-month sentence for S., with the last six months suspended. F. faced a demand for 240 hours community service and a EUR 20,000 fine.
S. was bound over to good behaviour for two years and was fined EUR 100,000. If he doesn't pay the fine, he will have to go to jail for 360 days. Two of S.'s companies were fined EUR 65,000 and EUR 32,500 respectively. F. was fined EUR 5,000.
#2
12-months in jail, with the last eight months suspended. F., Heerhugowaard, was ordered to do 180 hours community service.
S. was bound over to good behaviour for two years and was fined EUR 100,000. If he doesn't pay the fine, he will have to go to jail for 360 days. Two of S.'s companies were fined EUR 65,000 and EUR 32,500 respectively. F. was fined EUR 5,000.
Boy howdy! That's REALLY SERIOUS punishment for F*&KING NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION. How about 10-20 years and take away all their assets? Look at the damage they helped do?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/17/2005 10:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
"The court sentenced S., 61, from Sint Pancras to 12-months in jail, with the last eight months suspended. F., Heerhugowaard, was ordered to do 180 hours community service."
In the minds of the Dutch, their justice is the gold standard. In the minds of anyone still on this side of consciousness, Dutch "justice" primarly takes its shape from an unwillingness to name such a thing as a "wrong". Often, their sentences are born from the beliefs that criminals are merely misunderstood, and that criminal acts have root causes that provide criminals with moral cover for their actions.
French authorities deliberately suppressed information about the spread of radioactive fallout from the May 1986 Chernobyl disaster over France, according to details of an experts' report leaked Thursday.
Two independent physicists say in the report that the state-run Central Service for Protection against Radioactive Rays (SCPRI) knew of high levels of contamination in Corsica and southeastern France but kept the details under wraps.
The study was commissioned by magistrate Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, who since 2001 has been examining allegations that the atomic cloud from Chernobyl caused a surge in cases of thyroid cancer in parts of France.
This week Bertella-Geffroy handed over the report -- originally completed in March -- to civil plaintiffs in the case, who passed details to AFP.
"Now we have proof that there was a breakdown in the system. So now the judicial case will succeed -- I can't see how it can do otherwise," said Chantal Hoir, president of the French Association of Victims of Thyroid Cancer.
The report states that the SCPRI issued imprecise maps that concealed the high levels of fallout in certain areas, according to sources who saw the document. It also states that with full information health authorities could have taken targeted steps to reduce the exposure of vulnerable people such as children and pregnant mothers.
It was the first time an independent study gave substance to long-standing accusations from anti-nuclear groups that the French government deliberately played down the risk posed by the nuclear cloud.
"There was a veritable campaign of lies instigated by the state in order to protect the image of the French nuclear industry," said the campaigning organisation Sortir du Nucleaire (Get Out of Nuclear Power), welcoming details of the report. "As in other European countries, people should have been told not to eat fresh vegetables and milk products, which absorb most radioactivity, or to let their children play in sand-pits and so on," it said.
Earlier this year anti-nuclear campaigners demanded that SCPRI's director at the time of the disaster, Pierre Pellerin, be placed under judicial investigation in the case.
However scientific opinion remains deeply divided, with several renowned physicists sending an open letter to President Jacques Chirac in June commending Pellerin for not giving way to panic in his handling of the crisis.
In April, France's high court of appeal confirmed a conviction for libel against leading Green party deputy Noël MamÚre, who wrongfully accused Pellerin of claiming that the Chernobyl nuclear cloud stopped at the French border. Doctors also question the supposed link between Chernobyl and the rise in thyroid cancer, a trend which began in the mid-1970s.
2 issues here: the govt suppressing info and the irrational panic
RUSSIAâS ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vaticanâs position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of âsuccumbing to secular valuesâ over the issue.
âHomosexuality was called a sin in Holy Scripture â thereâs no possibility of any other interpretation,â said Fr Igor Vyzhanov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchateâs Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue. âThere are certain differences in how we handle candidates for priesthood, since celibacy is obligatory for Catholics whereas Orthodox can marry if they donât aspire to hierarchical posts. But thereâs total agreement between both Churches as concerns candidatesâ homosexual tendencies.â
The priest was speaking a fortnight after an instruction by the Vaticanâs Congregation for Catholic Education reaffirmed the Catholic Churchâs âprofound respectâ for homosexuals, but said Catholic seminaries should not admit students for ordination who âpractise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called âgay cultureââ.
He told Russiaâs Interfax newsagency Orthodox leaders were âastonishedâ at attempts by Protestant communities âto revise Biblical teachingsâ, believing it reflected their âdependence on influence from secular currents devoid of all moral foundationsâ.
âHomosexuals should be viewed as people suffering from a serious illness,â said Fr Vyzhanov, who handles the Russian Churchâs ties with Catholics. âIf laypeople are forbidden to engage in homosexual acts, so much more should priesthood candidates and Church people seek not political correctness, but a firm foundation for their faith in life.â
The comments came as another Russian Orthodox leader repeated his call for a âCatholic-Orthodox Allianceâ to negotiate with European institutions and other faiths on behalf of âtraditional Christianityâ.
âThe main themes would be social, ethical and bioethical questions and family policy,â Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, the Churchâs representative to the European Union, told an inter-Church conference in Vienna. âBut the group could also work out a code of behaviour for Catholics in predominantly Orthodox countries and for Orthodox in Catholic countries. In this way, it could contribute to overcoming the problem of proselytism.â
Catholic-Orthodox ties have long been tense in Russia and Eastern Europe over Orthodox complaints of Catholic proselytism, as well as over the revival of Greek or Eastern Catholic churches, who combine the eastern liturgy with loyalty to Rome and are known pejoratively as âUniatesâ by Orthodox leaders.
An International Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Theological Dialogue met again this week in Rome, five years after breaking down over the issue of âUniatismâ at its last session in Baltimore, in the United States.
Bishop Hilarion said he believed Catholic Bishopsâ Conferences should âunite their effortsâ with Orthodox Churches to stem Europeâs ârapid de-Christianisationâ and prevent the continent from losing its âcenturies-old Christian identityâ.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Big defeat for Blair and Brown, though they will probably spin their way out of it. By the time it starts biting in Britain they will be out of power.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
RUSSIAâS ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vaticanâs position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of âsuccumbing to secular valuesâ over the issue. 
