Ei-iE

Trade talks aimed at developing a new global services pact have begun following an agreement on a negotiating framework earlier this year.

Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have formally appointed Brazil’s Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo as the group’s next director general, capping a six-month leadership contest.

A group of 14 cultural ministers of the European Union are demanding that audio-visual services be excluded as a “cultural exemption” from planned free trade talks with the United States.

EI has called on the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to conclude a new treaty allowing those with visual disabilities to have better access to print materials.

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), one of EI’s national affiliates, has released the third edition of ‘Copyright Matters! Some Key Questions and Answers for Teachers’. The publication takes into account key changes that have occurred in the area of copyright since the previous edition, published in 2005.

A number of groups are warning that a potential new trade deal could force countries across the Pacific region to impose new restrictions on copyright.

The European Union and the United States are set to launch talks early next year that officials say will create a trading bloc representing about half of the world’s economic output and nearly a third of global trade.

With World Trade Organisation negotiations stuck in neutral, a group of key WTO countries has launched a separate set of talks aimed at creating an International Services Agreement (ISA).

With World Trade Organisation negotiations stuck in neutral, a group of key WTO countries has launched a separate set of talks aimed at creating an International Services Agreement (ISA).

With World Trade Organisation negotiations stuck in neutral, a group of key WTO countries has launched a separate set of talks aimed at creating an International Services Agreement (ISA).

The two largest of EI’s national affiliates in the UK, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT), have strongly reacted against Downing Street's plans to open a further 100 free schools in England from next year onwards.

A group of developing countries is calling on the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) to step up efforts to fully implement the Development Agenda adopted in 2007.

Concerns over the secrecy and substance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations prompted 32 leading American legal scholars to send a letter to the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) demanding transparency in the process.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is facing a growing backlash in Europe. On 31 May, all three committees of the European Parliament advising the International Trade Committee recommended rejecting the deal.

A group of countries billing themselves as the “Really Good Friends of Services” have agreed to start negotiations on an ambitious new global free trade agreement covering all service sectors. Meeting in Geneva at the end of May, the group agreed in principle to begin talks on a new International...

In joining the WTO, Russia had to modify nearly 300 pieces of legislation to conform with international trade rules, and agreed to lower tariffs across a number of industrial sectors and to reduce agricultural subsidies on dairy products and cereals.

A public spate broke out between WTO Director General Pascal Lamy and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, during the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference in December.

The 8th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference concluded on December 17th after 3 days of high level meetings exposed deepening divisions between developed and developing nations.