MEDIA REPORTS
TRADE, FINANCE AND
INVESTMENT IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Trade, Finance and Investment Media Reports Archives:
2010;
2009;
2008;
2007;
2006;
2005;
2004;
2002
JUNE 2003
LEADING INTERNATIONAL BANKS ADOPT EQUATOR PRINCIPLES ON ENVIRONMENTAL
AND SOCIAL STANDARDS FOR DEVELOPMENT FINANCING
Ten
banks from seven different countries have recently announced their
adoption of the Equator Principles, a set of voluntary guidelines for
managing the social and environmental issues related to development
financing. Developed in conjunction with the International Finance
Corporation, an arm of the World Bank Group, the Equator Principles will
be applied to loans in excess of $US 50 million and will serve to
promote social responsibility and environmental stewardship. It is
expected that application of the Equator Principles will affect over $US
14 billion in loan financing annually and will extend across a range of
sectors including mining, natural gas and forestry.
Links
to further information
Equator Principles press release 4 June, 2003:
http://equatorprinciples.ifc.org/ifcext/equatorprinciples.nsf
Reuters news article, 3 June, 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2871995
APRIL 2003
WTO AND UNCTAD ENHANCE
COOPERATION IN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
The World Trade Organization
and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have recently
signed a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a legal framework for technical assistance
cooperation between the two organizations. The specific purpose of the
partnership is to help enhance the implementation of the Doha
Development Agenda, improve development, and integrate LDCs into the
global economy.
"WTO and UNCTAD have a long
history of close cooperation," said WTO Director-General Supachai
Panitchpakdi. "UNCTAD has always been our best ally in assisting
developing countries' efforts to seize opportunities arising from the
multilateral trading system. This new legal framework will identify more
clearly our fields of cooperation and will facilitate our joint
activities." UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero added "This
agreement marks the formalization of a strong and long-standing
collaboration between our two organizations
We are confident that that
cooperation will only continue to thrive and that it will result in even
more effective capacity-building for developing countries in
trade-related areas."
Links to further information
UNCTAD/WTO Joint Press
Release, 16 April 2003
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=3381
&intItemID=1634&lang=1
MARCH 2003
PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT TO ESTABLISH PERMANENT DELEGATION IN
GENEVA FOR WTO REPRESENTATION
The
Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) recently announced its plan to establish
permanent representation in Geneva. The main objective of the PIF Geneva
delegation is to ensure that the interests of its participating members
are registered within the WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations.
Currently, only three PIF member-states – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and
the Solomon Islands – belong to the WTO.
Links
to further information
Pacific Islands Forum Press Release, 4 March 2003
http://www.forumsec.org.fj/news/2003/March04.htm
FEBRUARY 2003
WTO GRANTS MEAS PROVISIONAL OBSERVER
STATUS
WTO member states have agreed to grant
the Secretariats of six multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs)
provisional observer status at meetings of the WTO Committee on Trade
and Environment (CTE). This decision, which was undertaken at the recent special session
of the CTE held from 12-13 February, extends to the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as the Basel Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora
and Fauna (CITES); the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); the Montreal Protocol; the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO); and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). During the special session, WTO member states made
clear that the observer status would apply only to negotiations carried
out within the special session of the CTE. The committee also began
negotiations on paragraphs 31(i) concerning the relationship between WTO
rules and specific obligations in MEAs and 31(iii) regarding the
liberalization of trade in environmental goods and services.
Links to further information
ICTSD
Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest, 19
February 2003
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-02-19/story4.htm
JANUARY 2003
UK EXCHEQUER
PROPOSES
NEW
DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT
PLAN
A
new, international plan that pledges to bring much needed investment
financing to the world's poorest countries has been proposed. Unveiled
by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, the International
Finance Facility (IFF) would seek long-term donor support from wealthy
countries, leveraging additional financing from the global capital
markets on the basis of this support. Designed to help meet the
Millennium Development Goals, the proposed plan would bring the level of
development financing to $100 billion per year by 2015 and requires
that, in exchange for development financing, countries commit to
anti-corruption policies, an open trade regime, and an openness to
private investment. Brown likened the plan to the post-World War II
Marshall Plan, saying that the integration of poor countries into the
global economy will ensure a just and stable world in much that same way
that integrating Europe and America produced a global post-war revival.
According to Brown, "a world disfigured by poverty can neither be just
nor stable." UN Development Programme Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown,
welcomed the announcement of the IFF, saying that Chancellor Brown's
proposal is one of the most important development ideas to emerge in
recent years.
Links to further information
The
International Finance Facility Proposal
UNDP
Press Release, 22 January 2003
HM
Treasury Press Release, 22 January 2003,
Gordon Brown's Speech to the RIIA/Chatham House Conference on Corporate
Social Responsibility
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