|
In a press conference Tuesday, January 24, Brazil's Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, stated that he does not expect much progress at the annual meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting begins today and ends on Sunday, January 29.
"Significant progress is not likely. The negotiations in Hong Kong reached the limit of what was possible at that moment. There must be a pause before discussions involving more substantial matters are resumed. I am going there to observe the ritual as well as to establish procedures for the future," the Minister commented. Amorim noted that the European Union has been emitting negative signals with respect to the issues discussed at the Hong Kong meeting, which took place in December, 2005. "I thought it was still too soon to expect a robust offer of new markets. And on the basis of what was said and placed on the table by the negotiators at Geneva, we are sensing a movement in two directions on the part of the European Union. "When it comes to agriculture, there is a tendency to claim that we have already done all we could. In other words, that the offer is final," he explained. Another item mentioned by the Minister was the question of market access. According to Amorim, the European Union wants to deal with this question in terms of quantities of products. In his view, this is not a positive solution, since it will stimulate divisions among the developing countries, which united to negotiate at the Hong Kong meeting. "Even if this approach could satisfy the interests of some countries, it would be inadequate to produce the kind of tariff reductions that might lead the United States, another major subsidizer, to lower its domestic subsidies the way it should, the way we want," he said. According to the Minister, the impression conveyed by the developed countries is that the agreements discussed in Hong Kong will never be implemented. "What is on the table is a veiled attempt to move backwards. One gets the impression that defensive instruments are beginning to take shape so that the commitment that was assumed in Doha, in Agreement 4 of 2004, and now in Hong Kong will never be fulfilled," he said. Following the WTO meeting, the Minister will participate in a conference on Afghanistan, at the invitation of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. Brazil was the only Latin American country invited to the conference, which will discuss the participation of the international community in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
But why ?
We put something large on the table for the agriculture.
Not only it was not enough for you, but you offered NOTHING.
Therefore how can you expect something positive to be finalized ?
Afterall the EU is already your biggest or second biggest trading partners and YOU have already a HUGE TRADE SURPLUS with the EU.
What do you expect more...if you are fair ?
Is it not fair trade that you expect ?
Or just one way trade ?