Top Stories from 2nd August update

Trade/WTO:

• To cluster or not to cluster (in GATS)
• Take concrete steps for meaningful liberalisation, says ITCB
• E-com work programme to resume at WTO
• US banana sanctions, before DSB authorization, held illegal
• For EC, new round is solution for all problems
• WTO has different approaches to Trade Policy Review Mechanism reports
• GATS negotiations should first reduce current imbalance
• EC's 3rd stage integration of textile and clothing products into GATT
• NGOs tell Clinton their concerns over his stance on TRIPS
• Uruguay Round reforms imperil food security and sovereignty

Biotechnology/ Biodiversity:

• WTO sanctions 'theft of intellectual rights of poor by rich'
• Rampant biopiracy of South's biodiversity
• US not sure what's biopiracy
  See also: India's paper on "Protection of Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge"
• UN biodiversity meet fails to address key outstanding issues

Other news:

• The long march towards gender equity in Southern African Development Community
• Ex-Im Bank loans for AIDS is corporate welfare
• Cheaper AIDS drugs or commercial loans to buy TNC drugs?