At the 8-19 October 2007 meeting of the SPS committee of the WTO, the Members discussed the possibility of increasing the transparency of standards set by private firms. Will the WTO further expand its scope to become a WSO (World Standard Organization)?
Contrary to the boring headlines, the headline of this news item, "'untransparent' private standards criticized in a week of more transparency", is also both interesting and provocative.
The MNCs that choose to manufacturer their products in China are not only responsible for the design defects of such products, but also one fourth of the carbon emissions that have been attributed to China. For more information, check out this new report by the Tyndall Centre of the University of Sussex.
Last week, I was invited to speak at the Second Annual Conference of
the EDGE Network (Emerging Dynamic Global Economies) held in
Vancouver, Canada. A project initiated by Prof. Debra Steger from the
University of Ottawa, the purpose of the Network is to help Canada
develop effective strategies to deal with the new international
economic order marked by the new emerging economies, especially China,
India and Brazil.
