BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
PROSPECTS FOR DOHA ACCORD DIM, AS WTO HEADS INTO SUMMER RECESS	Prospects for salvaging an accord in the Doha Round of global trade talks remain dim as the WTO heads into its annual August recess, even though Director-General Pascal Lamy insists that a deal is within governments' grasp, should they be willing to make it. Member delegations should return to Geneva in September "ready to engage in intensive negotiations", Lamy chief told them at meetings of the Trade Negotiations Committee and General Council late last week.
DRAFT NAMA AGREEMENT TEXT CRITICISED BY MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES	A potential Doha Round compromise on industrial goods trade set out by the chair of the negotiating committee came under heavy fire from several developing countries last week. Countries such as South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and El Salvador decried the tariff cuts set out in the draft negotiating text put together by non-agricultural market access (NAMA) Chair Ambassador Don Stephenson (Canada) as unfairly deep for developing countries, too easy on industrialised nations, and out of all proportion to the farm subsidy reform provided for in a related potential deal on agriculture.
US DEMOCRATS SEEK GREATER ASSISTANCE FOR WORKERS HURT BY TRADE	US Senators from both parties have jointly introduced a bill that would greatly expand governmental assistance to workers who have lost their jobs as a result of either increased imports or the relocation of their jobs overseas. Most significantly, the proposed legislation would extend benefits to service sector workers such as computer programmers and call-centre employees who lose their jobs as a result of foreign competition.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
	EU Backs Off Challenge to Indian Wine, Spirits Tariffs CTE: No Movement Until Progress on Ag, NAMA

Events        &        Resources
Events	6-8 August, Bangkok, Thailand. ASIA-PACIFIC TROPICAL FOREST INVESTMENT FORUM: ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTING IN NATURAL TROPICAL FORESTS. This regional forum, hosted by the International Tropical Timber Organisation, offers an opportunity for participants to discuss ways to generate private and public investment in natural tropical forests. Plenary presentations and panel discussions will focus on regional investment trends, constraints and opportunities for increased investments in natural tropical forests, methodologies, case-studies, analysis and legislation that influence investments for revenue generation, including markets for forest services and non-timber forest products. internet: http://www.itto.or.jp/live/PageDisplayHandler?pageId=223&id=3289
Resources	HOW TO APPROACH THE MONITORING OF THE ACP-EU ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS: AN OVERVIEW. By S. Bilal, F. Rampa, F. Jerosch, and D. Makhan. European Centre for Development Policy Management, 2007. The African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states and the European Union (EU) countries have agreed to negotiate new WTO-compatible Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). These agreements should not be an end in themselves, but be first and foremost instruments for development. While these new free trade arrangements offer new development opportunities, they also pose considerable challenges for the ACP. To ensure that the development dimension of the EPAs is fulfilled, close monitoring - of both the negotiation and the implementation of these new partnership agreements - will be of prime importance. This InBrief presents a preliminary overview of some methodological issues linked to the design of a monitoring mechanism for the EPAs. The report is available at http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Navigation.nsf/index2?readform&http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Content.nsf/0/F311DF7D6853B9ECC12570D20036AC44
BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest is made possible through the generous support of the Government of the United Kingdom (DFID) and ICTSD's core donors including the Governments of Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden; Christian Aid (UK) and NOVIB (NL). BRIDGES Weekly also benefits from support for the BRIDGES series of publications from donors including the Rockefeller Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.