Saturday, December 7, 2002

Global Trade Negotiations Are Making Little Progress. The new round of global trade negotiations, begun with great fanfare at Doha, Qatar, early this year, has bogged down. By Elizabeth Olson. [New York Times: Business 12/7/02; 6:44:01 AM.] Most trade matters are obscure and technical, but they can have important connections to highly charged emotional issues. The trade organization has found itself squirming uncomfortably in the spotlight when the effects of trade treaties on environmental safeguards or the treatment of workers have been spotlighted. Now, the question of whether developing countries have the right to override foreign patent protections for essential medicines has become such an issue, in part because it has been cast in moral terms. 12:21:12 PM

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