This issue of the South Bulletin reports on the meeting between the South Centre’s Chairman, Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, and China’s President, Mr. Xi JinPing, held in Tanzania.

Mr. Mkapa explained the work and priorities of the Centre and President Xi praised the efforts of the Centre in promoting South-South cooperation and in increasing the representation of the Centre, and said China would continue to provide help to the Centre.

The latest South Bulletin provides an analysis of the Climate Conference of the UNFCCC (held in Doha in November - December 2012). The conference had low ambition in terms of emission reduction and finance for developing countries. But progress was made on “loss and damage” resulting from the effects of climate change, in the adaptation agenda.

Due to the global economic situation, many countries around the world are either facing debt crises or on the verge of falling into one.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on resolving the debt crises, especially through the setting up of an international debt resolution mechanism, an idea whose time has come.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the emerging crisis of investment treaties. An epidemic of international legal suits taken by companies against governments for billions of dollars is causing public concern and leading to reviews of international investment treaties.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on trade – the WTO impasse and the possible roads ahead, the multilateral trading system and current topical WTO issues; and the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings held in Tokyo on 9-14 October 2012.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on how developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are now facing an economic slowdown with a deterioration in GDP growth, exports and lending conditions.  The effects of the Eurozone recession and the US slowdown are now increasingly felt in the South.

This issue of South Bulletin covers many interesting issues. Our two lead articles are on the BANKING CRISIS in developed countries.  The first by Martin Khor reviews how the LIBOR scandal has contributed to the loss of confidence on the ethics of the major banks.  The second article is by India’s former Central Bank Governor, Dr. Y.V. Reddy on the need to re-make the financial system to meet society’s needs.  He focuses on why trust has to be restored, how there has been “comprehensive regulatory capture” of the system, and the need for inclusive finance, as issues to address.

This issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the Rio Plus 20 Summit to be held in 20-22 June in Brazil.  The meetings actually begin on 13 June.

Twenty years after the Earth Summit the world faces even more serious crises in the environment and the economy.  Will Rio+20 do better in rising to the challenge of tackling the global crises?

After two years of negotiations, the Summit meetings are now underway.  But the outcome of the Summit is still far from decided.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on two sets of negotiations at the United Nations --  the UNCTAD XIII which starts on 21 April in Doha, and the Rio+20 summit to be held in June.

UNCTAD conferences are held every four years.  The last two sessions were quite tame affairs.  But UNCTAD XIII (21-26 April in Doha) is expected to be difficult and even fiery, because the future mandate of UNCTAD to undertake work on key issues like the global financial crisis is being questioned.  Pre-conference negotiations in Geneva hit an impasse. The developing countries are putting up a fight to preserve the mandate given at UNCTAD XII in 2008.  

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the UNCTAD XIII conference in Doha at the end of April. It ended with the adoption of a Doha Mandate, which gave UNCTAD a new and broad 4 year mandate to continue to work on a wide range of issues, including the global financial crisis, macro-economic policy and debt, as well as other trade and development issues.  

This issue of South Bulletin highlights a keynote speech made by the Chairperson of the South Centre, H.E. Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, former President of Tanzania, in which he made a critical analysis of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that the African countries are negotiating with the European Union, and the alternatives for the East African Community and for African countries.

This issue of the South Bulletin has two major main issues: The Durban Climate Conference, and the WTO's 8th Ministerial Conference, both held in December 2011.

The Durban conference has given rise to a new round of climate change negotiations, which will start in 2012 and is scheduled to end in 2015. This decision was made after intense negotiations lasting several days and during a dramatic night of plenary sessions marked by passionate speeches. Though the decision was made to launch new talks leading to a legal protocol or "an agreed outcome with legal force", the terms of reference of the new round will be decided next year, when the differences among countries can be expected to continue.

At the WTO's Ministerial Conference in Geneva, there was (in contrast to Durban) a calm and relaxed atmosphere. But there were also many issues that divided the countries, mainly on North-South lines. The South Bulletin provides preliminary analyses of these two major events.

In this issue of the South Bulletin, we provide reports of the visit to the Philippines of the Chairman and Board members of the South Centre.

They met with the President of the Philippines, and also held meetings with the Foreign Secretary and the Governor of Cebu.

The South Centre Board also took part in a conference in Manila and met leaders of other agencies.

This issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the recent deterioration in the state of the global economy and the effects this will have on developing countries.

The Bulletin also gives details of the Conference co-organised by the South Centre on Options that developing countries have in facing the global financial turmoil.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the adverse effects of the boom and bust cycle in capital flows into and out of developing countries, which has caused adverse effects in many economies.

After the financial crisis, capital flows resumed their large surge into some developing countries.  This has caused them many problems, such as currency appreciation affecting their trade, excess money, asset price boom and inflation.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the deep impasse in the World Trade Organization’s Doha negotiations. The "crunch time" has come for these talks.  Although political leaders in the G20 pledged to conclude the talks by 2011, this is not likely to happen because there are still big gaps between the positions of developed and developing countries.

The focus on this issue is on the Economic Partnership Agreements that African countries are negotiating with the European Commission. As is well known these negotiations have faced an impasse for a long time.

At the African Union conference of Trade Ministers in Kigali in early November, the African Trade Ministers at the AU Conference called on Europe to rethink the basic premises of these EPAs.

The Bulletin has articles analysing this latest situation.  

The 15 March 2011 issue of South Bulletin has three main themes:

Tanzanian President visits South Centre during Board meeting; South Centre workshop on global economic problems and effects on South; Cancun climate conference:  serious implications for developing countries.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the key issues in the international monetary system, many of which are missing from the agenda of the G20 which will hold a Summit in November. Three articles deal with the need to reform the IMF and the global financial systems.

Other articles deal with recent emerging issues in the global economy – the currency chaos, volatile capital flows, and a new protectionism in the U.S.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the growing shortage of water which has emerged as one of the major crises of our times.  A third of the world's people face water scarcity and by 2025 two-thirds of people may suffer water stress.  This crisis should be at the top of the global agenda.

The new South has a cover story on why developing countries should also be eligible for compensation by transnational companies responsible for environmental disasters. The recent $20 bil fund set up by BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico should be a model for companies to compensate for disasters such as in Bhopal, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Niger Delta.

The Bulletin also focuses on ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), a TRIPS-Plus treaty being negotiated by 11 members that would be harmful to health and consumer interests and to developing countries. The Bulletin analyses ACTA and carries statements by India, China and Brazil at the WTO on why TRIPS-Plus enforcement is harmful.

Other articles make comments on the austerity policies of developed countries, and on why a climate deal needs to be based on equity in “carbon space”

This latest issue of South Bulletin focuses on why China and other East Asian developing countries require a rethinking of the growth strategies, as the global economic slowdown has exposed their over-reliance on exports.

The articles include estimates on the dependence of China on exports for its growth (much higher than previously estimated), why the trade surplus of China with the US is much smaller than widely thought, and the way forward for future growth in China. Another aricle discusses why other East Asian countries face deeper problems and also need a policy re-thinking.

The Bulletin reports on the latest June climate talks in Bonn:  how developing countries suffered a setback in a new text, and how the talks reveal continuing deep differences.Another article reports on a dire warning by climate scientists why the "paltry pledges" of the Copenhagen Accord are driving the world to a temperature increase of 3 to 4 degrees.

The global climate talks are back on track, months after the chaotic ending of the Copenhagen Conference.

This issue of South Bulletin (26 May 2010) focuses on the UNFCCC talks in April and gives a brief preview of what to expect in the UNFCCC talks in the first half of June 2010.

Although enough confidence was built among the UNFCCC member states to resume negotiations, the talks ahead will be very tough as preparations are made for the next Conference in Mexico in December.

This issue of South Bulletin focuses on the WTO’s Doha negotiations. The Doha talks have missed many deadlines. The latest deadline is 2010, but it will most likely also be missed.

The Bulletin gives a brief report on the Stocktaking Exercise held at the WTO at the end of March. It was supposed to catalyse movement in the talks but instead became an occasion to confirm that there was nothing new in the impasse.

Another article analyses the “rise and decline” of the Doha talks, tracing the history from its controversial start in 2001 to the present impasse. On the way, the Doha programme lost its development goal and instead became an opportunity for developed countries to pressurise developing countries to open up their markets.

The South Bulletin No. 44 (8 March 2010) carries a main article on the workshop held by South Centre on the current economic situation; Three eminent economists have warned developing countries not to be misled by reports that a global economic recovery is underway; Most developing countries are yet to benefit from recovery; And the South as a whole has to re-examine their development strategies in light of basic economic changes in developed countries.

Only 2 of 10 developed countries’ pledges are sufficient to meet the 2 degrees target, and the current pledges lead the world to disastrous global warming of over 3 degrees.

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 8: Click  here to download

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 7: Click  here to download

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 6: click  here to download

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 5: click  here to download

By Martin Khor

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 4: Click  here to download

By Bhumika Muchhala

 

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 3: click  here to download

 

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 2: click  here to download

By Martin Khor 

South Bulletin Issue 38 (7 July 2009) Articles

Article 1: Click  here to download

 By Dr. Yilmaz Akyüz

 

South Bulletin Issue 37 (6 June 2009) Articles

Article 2: click  here  to download

South Bulletin Issue 37 (6 June 2009) Articles

Article 1: Click  here to download

 

 

This Issue of the South Bulletin focuses on several issues including on economic partnership agreements, climate change and sustainable development, balancing public policy objectives and rights of intellectual property rights holders, reform of globalisation and developing countries as engines of economic growth. 

The Editorial by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre is on "Open versus Closed Energy Systems and Climate Change". The end piece is on Reflections from the Fifth South Intellectual Platform workshop by Vikas Nath.

 

This Issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the primacy of health and production over trade and finance. Prioritising trade over over industry, finance over production, and health over intellectual property rights has been one of the most flawed logic of the neoliberal globalisation paradigm. The Editorial by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre is on "Putting Production over Trade and Finance".

Other articles and commentaries appearing in this Issue include, Five Steps to Overcoming Global Financial Crisis by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Primacy of Health over Trade and IP Enforcement by Brazilian Ambassador Maria Nazareth Farani Azevedo, Reflections on the Poznan Climate Conference by Mukul Sanwal, Bank of the South: Progress and challenges by Isabel Ortiz and Oscar Ugarteche and ASEAN Towards A Single Market: Lessons for other regions by Tulus Tambunan.

The Op-Ed is by Norman Girvan on "Cuba: The debt is unpayable".

 

The first Issue of 2009 of the South Bulletin is a Special Issue focusing exclusively on the Palestine-Israel Question. The Editorial and the lead article by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre are on "The Palestine-Israel Question : There is another way out of the dilemma".

This is followed by articles by John Pilger on "Holocaust Denied: The lying silence of those who know", by Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann on "End the Scourge of War", by Navanethem Pillay on "Accountability Must Be Ensured for Violations of International Law" and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in 1946 on the Palestine Question.

History will not absolve those world leaders who watch with cynicism the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in front of their very eyes in Gaza.