Trade

The progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals is being discussed at a summit in New York. The goals were set in 2000 with a target of meeting them by 2015. Ten years later, it's clear that progress in many areas is slow, espeicially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where over half the population continues to live in abject poverty.

MEPs fired questions at the new European trade commissioner Karel de Gucht in a European Parliamentary hearing last week (12 January).

The WTO mini-ministerial in Delhi has now concluded. On first appearances, it looks as if the meeting has given a boost to the cause of free trade and a WTO deal break through. Afterall, Shri Anand Sharma, India's commerce and industry minister issued a final statement to say, "There was a unanimous affirmation on the need to conclude the Doha Round within 2010."

Global Trade Alert a website part-funded by the UK government, was launched last month, has hit the headlines as a weapon in rich countries' armoury in the war of words designed to defeat protectionism and help free trade to conquer all.

So the results are in and weeks of fevered speculation and variable opinion polls now give way to the post European election analysis.

Apathy and discontent are a heady mix. MEP candidates in the UK are facing both in this week's EU elections. But is it really the voters who are apathetic?