BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
CLASH OVER NAMA FURTHER DIMS HOPES FOR DOHA DEAL	Market access issues have dominated the start of a three-week phase of intensive consultations by the chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations. The talks, centring on the draft agreement text issued in July by Chair Ambassador Crawford Falconer (New Zealand), are widely seen as an especially serious 'make-or-break' moment for the Doha Round, with delegates warning that substantial progress is needed now if any deal is to be achieved.
WIPO GENERAL ASSEMBLY ENDS IN DISARRAY, AMIDST DIVISIONS OVER DIRECTOR-GENERAL	The World Intellectual Property Organization's annual General Assembly ended in disarray on 4 October, with member governments unable to agree on a new budget or future revenue streams for the institution, amidst divisions on whether Director-General Kamil Idris should resign.
AFTER LONG DELAY, US NOTIFIES 2002-2005 AG SUBSIDIES TO WTO	The US on 4 October announced that it has notified the WTO of its domestic support payments to farmers for the years 2002 to 2005, with a senior official insisting that Washington had remained within the spending limits imposed by its obligations to the global trade body.
CANADIAN WTO NOTIFICATION CLEARS PATH FOR RWANDA TO IMPORT GENERIC HIV/AIDS DRUG	Rwanda is on the verge of becoming the first country to use WTO procedures designed to allow poor nations to import cut-price medicines that they are unable to manufacture, after Canada last week formally notified the global trade body that it had authorised the production of generic copies of a patented HIV/AIDS drug for export to the African state.
BRAZIL'S CALL FOR BIOFUEL LIBERALISATION CAUSES STIR IN ENVT'L GOODS TALKS	Brazil last week created a stir in the Doha Round negotiations on liberalising trade in environmental goods, by calling for specific products to be slated for expedited tariff cuts based on a request-offer process - with biofuels included.
EXPANDING GLOBAL TRADE FUELS POLLUTION CONCERNS	The need for action to stem the global warming impact of shipping and air-freighting goods around the world is increasingly coming to the fore.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
Costa Ricans Narrowly Approve CAFTA-DR in Referendum Israel and Egypt Amend Three-Way Trade Deal to Boost Exports to US	Members Submit Revised Proposals on Trade Facilitation

Events        &        Resources
Events	11-12 October, Washington, DC. CONFERENCE ON INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT - EMERGING ISSUES AND CHALLENGES FOR LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES AND INVESTORS. This conference is organized by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Columbia Program on International Investment (CPII), with the collaboration of the SETIC/Academia de Centroamérica and the Organization of American States (OAS). The conference will address trends and developments in investor-state dispute settlement internationally and within Latin America, the impact of investor-state dispute settlement on domestic reform processes, the challenges associated with dispute settlement for Latin American capital exporters, in particular small and medium-sized firms and the dispute settlement alternatives in the region. Internet: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=2068&lang=1&m=14516&year=2007&month=10
Resources	AN EXAMINATION OF U.S. AND EU GOVERNMENT SUPPORT TO BIOFUELS: EARLY LESSONS. International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council, 2007. The U.S. and the EU are presently considering signifcant increases in their biofuels mandates in transportation fuel. However, without commercially viable second-generation biofuels, ambitious mandates coupled with high tariffs risk a disproportionate focus on U.S. and EU first-generation biofuels, regardless of their ability to address environmental and energy concerns. The absence of technical and sustainablility standards as well as the lack of clarity about international trade obligations may increase this tendency. The brief suggests that the U.S. and the EU should adopt policies that serve to promote biomass uses that are the most energy efficient and that show the greatest promise for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of the feedstock's national origin. The brief is available at: http://www.agritrade.org/Publications/EU_US_Biofuels.html.
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.