• GENERAL COUNCIL APPROVES SEYCHELLES’ WTO MEMBERSHIP, ONLY RATIFICATION LEFT

WTO members adopted Seychelles’ WTO terms of entry at the General Council meeting on 10 December 2014. Seychelles will have until 1 June 2015 to ratify the deal to formally become a WTO member 30 days after it notifies the ratification to the WTO Director-General. www.wto.org

• MEMBERS PREPARE FOR 200-DAY PUSH ON GI REGISTER PORTION OF POST-BALI PROGRAMME

WTO intellectual property negotiators said they were committed to meet the July 2015 deadline for laying down plans on how to complete the Doha Round talks — in their case on how to set up a geographical indications register for wines and spirits. But speakers on both sides of the debate said in a 12 December 2014 informal meeting that hard talking would have to wait until a clearer picture emerges in other key subjects.

• AFRICA SET TO BENEFIT FROM WTO BREAKTHROUGH ON BALI

Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, in his address to the African Union Conference of Ministers of Trade on 4 December in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said that African nations stand to benefit from the recent WTO decisions on the Bali agreements, including on the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which would support “your efforts at regional integration in a very practical way”. He urged African members to “engage even more” in the WTO. “We are coming to a defining period in our work when it will be crucial that your voices are heard in full,” he said. This is what he said: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/spra_e/spra43_e.htm

• THE OECD TRADE FACILITATION INDICATORS

(TFIs) measure the performance of 133 countries around the world over the full spectrum of policy areas and measures included in the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. The TFIs are currently being updated. In order to collect the latest information on trade facilitation performance, the OECD has recently agreed to cooperate with the United Nations Regional Commissions Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation. Read more

• A WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation was concluded at the Bali Ministerial in December 2013. The OECD has since re-calculated the potential benefits of the Agreement for various groups of countries, using the OECD Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs). Read more
• The Ministry of Trade and Industry in Togo will be joining forces with the TNCB project to review the functioning of the IICs and assess it future needs in a meeting. This meeting will have the opportunity to discuss and consider key regional initiatives as well as topical international issues….