BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
AG NEGOTIATORS DISCUSS MARKET ACCESS EXCEPTIONS AS 'CORE GROUP' INTENSIFIES WORK	Two weeks of intensive discussions have yielded "some tangible progress" in the Doha Round agriculture talks, the chair of the negotiations said last week, though not enough to put an agreement within WTO Members' reach. Now in the third and final week of a round of consultations on the potential terms for a deal set out by Chair Ambassador Crawford Falconer (New Zealand) in July, delegates continue to meet in groups of varying size and composition in search of ways forward..
CHINA FILES WTO CASE AGAINST US TRADE REMEDIES	China on 14 September initiated WTO dispute proceedings against the US, requesting consultations on a series of extra duties imposed by Washington on some of its paper exports. Beijing contends that the US has failed to adequately justify the countervailing and anti-dumping tariffs. The decision to pursue a case at the global trade arbiter signals a more combative stance for the rapidly growing economy: this is only the second time China has sought to use the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism. The first was in 2002, when it joined several countries in a complaint against US steel duties. Since then, it has preferred to address trade irritants in informal talks.
KENYAN PARLIAMENT REJECTS PATENT LAW AMENDMENTS, PRESERVES TRIPS FLEXIBILITIES	The Kenyan parliament last week rejected proposed amendments to national patent rules which could have threatened the provision of essential medicines. The decision preserves the government's right to issue compulsory licenses that authorise the import, manufacture and supply of generic copies of patented products. Public health advocates greeted the move with relief. "It means Kenya can continue to buy medicines from the cheapest source and make them widely available for patients," said James Kamau, coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Action Movement.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TRIPS AMENDMENT VOTE POSTPONED ONCE AGAIN	The European Parliament's international trade committee on 12 September once again prevented the ratification of a controversial amendment to WTO intellectual property rules aimed at easing poor countries' access to patented drugs. It cited a continuing failure by the EU's 27 member states to guarantee that they will help developing nations manufacture and import affordable medicines.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
	NAMA: Looking at 'Non-Core' Issues While Waiting on Agriculture

Events        &        Resources
Events	20-21 September, Geneva, Swizterland. EXPERT MEETING ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT IMPLICATIONS OF FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITY EXCHANGES. The meeting aims to discuss key financial services, their trade and development implications and their role in achieving financial stability within the context of a country's broader development objectives. four sessions will address global market trends in financial services; the role of financial services in economic development; financial services, the role of government, regulatory frameworks and international regulatory standards; and liberalization of financial services trade through multilateral and regional negotiations and their development implications. The meeting will provide an opportunity for actors from public and private sectors, including trade negotiators, policy makers, academia and financial services regulators, to explore different facets of financial services in an open debate at the international level. For information e-mail: Mina.Mashayekhi@unctad.org and Elisabeth.Tuerk@unctad.org; internet: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=1942&lang=1&m=13560&year=2007&month=9
Resources	CAN THE TRADING SYSTEM BE GOVERNED? INSTITUTIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE WTO'S SUSPENDED ANIMATION. By Robert Wolfe. Centre for International Governance Innovation Working Paper No. 30, September 2007. Do the difficulties in reaching an agreement in the Doha round signal the need for institutional reform of the WTO? Members face great difficulty in undertaking needed renovations and new agreements through negotiations, even as the organization goes about its daily work as usual. This paper is structured by two hypotheses, that the way in which interests are aggregated changes outcomes; and that deliberation aids learning, which changes outcomes. The paper shows that WTO decision-making principles, dominated by the Single Undertaking and consensus , are essential given the nature of the membership and the political saliency of the issues, which has implications both for what is discussed (the agenda) and how (process). New rules apply to all, which means that voice for all Members matters. While exit is difficult, any Member can deny consensus, in principle if not in practice, which creates more roles for small groups and coalitions, and a common need for transparency. The paper concludes that procedural improvements by themselves will not solve intractable policy disagreements, but the lessons now being learned in the Doha Round on how to manage traditional negotiations involving many more Members within a changing global power structure might pay off in a subsequent round. Nevertheless the engagement of thousands of officials in the WTO process continues to shape collective management of the global trading system, even when revisions to the treaty prove elusive.
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.