The Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus (SOAS) has published a comparative report on child labor in the cotton sectors of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Both countries agreed to the International Labour Organization convention against child labor, however, SOAS found that little has changed in Uzbekistan where child labor is an unspoken national policy. The report also finds that while Tajikistan's central government has issued decrees prohibiting child labor in cotton fields, it seems less able to control its dynamics at the local level. SOAS concludes that the key factors are that the agriculture sector is reliant on state-supported labor mobilization and that farms lack the resources to pay competitive wages for adult cotton pickers.
The World Economic Forum reports that during the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico, the Working Group on Trade and Climate Change published a study on how a clash between trade and climate change can be avoided. The study also suggests how the World Trade organization (WTO) can advance trade while achieving climate change goals.
In World Trade Organization Director-General Lamy's second annual report on accessions issued on December 8, 2010, he stated that 30 countries are in the process of acceding to the WTO. Ten formal accession Working Party meetings were held in 2010; these were for Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lao PDR, Serbia (two meetings), Seychelles, Tajikistan and Yemen (two meetings). Nine informal Working Party consultations/meetings were also held in 2010 for Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation (five meetings), Samoa and Yemen (two meetings).
In the December 12, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
The World Trade Organization panel examining “U.S. - Measures Affecting Imports of Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from China” (DS399), has issued a report stating that in imposing the transitional safeguards measure on September 26, 2009 on imports of subject tires from China, the U.S. did not fail to comply with its WTO obligations.1
The World Trade Organization posted the following notices for December 13, 2010 (may have to click twice on source documents for proper viewing):
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases on December 13, 2010:
In the December 10, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases on December 10, 2010:
Mexico's Diario Oficial of December 10, 2010 lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows: