Agriculture: Chair's draft ministerial decisions could harm interests of South (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The chair of the Doha agriculture negotiating body, Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta from Costa Rica, has issued a 27-page draft text containing nine draft decisions for the WTO's 12th ministerial conference (MC12) that could impose a huge burden and cost on the developing and least developed countries, said people familiar with the development.

Trade: TPRB report counters "gloomy" narrative on Covid-related measures (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The United States and India on 29 July supported the findings of a report issued by the WTO's Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB) on trade-related developments from mid-October 2020 to mid-May 2021 that showed that countries adopted more trade-facilitating measures than trade-restrictive measures, said people familiar with the development.

Finance: Cross-border bank claims rise in first quarter of 2021, says BIS (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
Cross-border bank claims increased by $646 billion to reach a total of $36 trillion during the first quarter of 2021, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has said.