GENEVA (Reuters) – A controversial plan to allow developing countries to raise tariffs temporarily to cope with a destabilising flood of food imports or drop in food prices would actually have little impact on trade flows, a new study shows.

Disagreements over the “special safeguard mechanism” were the immediate cause of the collapse in July 2008 of the last major attempt to conclude the World Trade Organization’s long-running Doha round to open up world trade.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States rejected on Tuesday a call by Indonesia for a World Trade Organization panel to rule on their dispute over the U.S. ban on clove-flavoured cigarettes.

Like many trade disputes, this turns on health and safety rules, and whether they are being abused to keep out imports.

GENEVA, June 14 (Reuters) – Emergency bailouts by
governments to cope with the financial crisis have distorted
investment flows and should be scaled back as soon as it is safe
to do so, an international report released on Monday said.

But the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
also found that regular investment policies in recent months had
tended to keep markets open and promote investment flows.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Rich and developing countries clashed on Wednesday over controversial proposals to tighten up the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is being negotiated by a dozen governments and authorities, mainly in rich states but including some emerging economies, to police trademark protection more effectively and ban Internet piracy.

GENEVA (Reuters) – South Africa sees growing opportunities for trade with other developing countries as new economic powerhouses emerge and Europe is engulfed by economic and currency weakness, its trade chief said on Wednesday.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the changing world economy meant South Africa could intensify trade ties with countries such as Brazil, India and China at the expense of links with traditional partners such as the European Union.

GENEVA (Reuters) – South Africa sees growing opportunities for trade with other developing countries as new economic powerhouses emerge and Europe is engulfed by economic and currency weakness, its trade chief said on Wednesday.

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the changing world economy meant South Africa could intensify trade ties with countries such as Brazil, India and China at the expense of links with traditional partners such as the European Union.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Libya has ordered the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR to close its operations there, putting the future of more than 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers at risk, a UNHCR spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The expulsion has taken on added gravity because of the Italian policy of pushing back refugees who are fleeing North Africa and the Middle East out of Italian waters into Libya, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Protectionism is still a risk as unemployment remains high in many countries despite the recovery but it has so far not caused the serious damage that some feared, a World Trade Organization report will argue next week.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has been reporting since early 2009 on trade measures by the WTO’s 153 members to monitor whether the financial crisis was leading to tit-for-tat steps of the kind that caused the 1930s Great Depression.

GENEVA, June 8 (Reuters) – Governments should reform
financial markets and keep stimulus packages in place rather
than being panicked into austerity measures that risk a second
recession, trade unionists and economists said on Tuesday.

John Evans, general-secretary of the Trade Union Advisory
Committee to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), said unions were arguing that there could
not be a simple return to business as usual before the crisis.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The H1N1 pandemic is not yet over although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday after a review of the flu outbreak by independent experts.

The WHO emergency committee, composed of 15 external advisers, said it remained critical for countries to maintain vigilance concerning the pandemic, including necessary public health measures for disease control and surveillance, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in a statement.