Afp, Manila, The Daily Star, 04 June 2008

With oil and food prices at record levels Philippine President Gloria Arroyo launched a programme Tuesday to help the country’s poor pay their electricity bills, aides said.

The “lifeline aid” programme, limited to about four million poor households, will see families receive a one-off payment of 500 pesos (13 dollars) to help meet rising electricity costs, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral told reporters.

Arroyo said the government is giving back to the poorest families sales taxes on the use of electricity and other goods and services.

“Due to (the sales tax), the government has more funds for infrastructure and social services,” she said in a speech.

Pti, New Delhi, The Daily Star, 01 September 2007, Saturday

India is sending a strong team to Geneva where talks on the latest proposals on agriculture subsidy and market access will resume September 3, although New Delhi has rejected the World Trade Organisation (WTO) text on the industrial goods.

Officials on Thursday indicated hectic parleys are on between key WTO players, including India, to explore the possibility of holding a ministerial meeting in the middle of October.

Ministerial Meeting, comprising trade ministers of 150 member countries, is the highest policy-making organ of the World Trade Organisation and generally meets once in two years to take stock of the multilateral trade negotiations.

“We expect some progress if WTO Chief Pascal Lamy brings some changes in the NAMA text, as the present text is considered ‘fundamentally flawed and biased’ by 110 members,” an official said.

The Doha Round of negotiations, launched in 2001, had to conclude by the end of 2004 but has missed several deadlines.

After the collapse of the G-4 talks between the US, EU, India and Brazil in June this year, Lamy made renewed efforts to bring the round on the rails. He succeeded in getting prepared the drafts on Agriculture and NAMA (Non Agricultural Market Access).

India has accepted the agriculture text as a “good basis for further negotiations,” but rejected the proposals seeking higher duty cuts on industrial products by developing nations.