1. Tuesday 2 March: both Maria & Emmanuel attended a roundtable debate at the European Parliament entitled "Bananas & the EU: Fair Trade or Free Trade. The discussion/debate was rather arid. Nonetheless, the meeting has helped stimulate attention in some quarters about the impact of the ten new countries on the banana industry in West African countries, like Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. ICDA Secretariat represented the UK's Banana Link. The Secretariat took documents, including a statement produced by both EUROBAN and Banana Link's Alistair Smith, head of the Norwich-based NGO.

WTO Impact List:: ICDA's flagship newsletter has gone out reasonably on time, but the Secretariat prefers to only send a WTOIL when it can, as sometimes priorities on other things can force the staff to under-prioritise it--either because of time constraints, or those brought about because of having to attend a(n urgent) meeting.

UNCTAD:: The Secretariat's efforts in ascertaining cleavages of opinion, as it were, from ICDA Members on UNCTAD continues to intensify. Currently, our efforts are two-fold:

1. Monday focus on WTOIL (UNLDC3-UNCTAD)
2. ICDA Members Newsletter that goes out first Friday of every month

Further activities for this month and beyond are in the pipeline, but we will do our very best to communicate this on the website as soon as we have more information. Do please feel very free to check our UNCTAD XI page here.

This person should be able to work in an international non-profit environment. He/She must also be able to understand both written and spoken French, but most importantly, have secretarial and office management experience as well as be able to work with computers and, most importantly, Microsoft Excel.

You can find more about these themes on ICDA's latest news page for meetings here. [Posted: Monday 12 January 2004 @ 1.35am CET]

NEW INTERNS!: HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our visitors! ICDA is pleased to welcome two new interns at the Secretariat--Ms.Maria Tikmanidi and Ms.Ileana Miritescu. Maria will be working at the Secretariat on a full-time basis, with Ileana working on a part-time basis. Emmanuel continues to work at ICDA on a full-time basis.

WTO Impact List!: ICDA's flagship electronic newsletter will be back in February. We are updating the system and moving it to topica.com. For those interested in the WTO Impact List, pls visit the site here [Posted: Wednesday 18 February 2004 @ 1.40am CET]

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