BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
AGRICULTURE: 'DEGREES' OF PROGRESS, WHILE BROAD DIVISIONS PERSIST	With WTO Members still deadlocked on the depth of Doha Round farm subsidy and tariff cuts, negotiators in Geneva are focusing on a range of secondary and technical issues in order to make it possible for governments to conclude an agreement swiftly if and when they make the concessions necessary to bridge their differences.
'INTERIM' GOODS-ONLY EPAs MAY SUFFICE FOR ACP BEFORE END-YEAR DEADLINE , EU SAYS	The EU appears to have stepped back from threats to curtail preferential market access for some of the world's poorest countries if they fail to reach comprehensive trade agreements before a key negotiating deadline at the end of the year. Interim accords limited to goods trade may suffice to preserve uninterrupted market access, Brussels now seems to be suggesting.
'EXCHANGE RATE' COMES TO FORE IN NAMA IMPASSE	The balance between concessions demanded of rich and poor nations as part of a potential Doha Round accord has acquired heightened prominence in the talks on liberalising trade in industrial goods.
WTO PANEL: US HAS FAILED TO COMPLY WITH COTTON RULING IN DISPUTE WITH BRAZIL	A WTO dispute panel has determined that the US failed to bring its cotton subsidy programmes fully into compliance with an earlier ruling, potentially opening the door to billions of dollars worth of sanctions from Brazil.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
EU, South Korea Resume FTA Talks UNCTAD's Investment Report Points to FDI Boom, Highlights Extractive Industry	China Facing Scrutiny on Multiple Fronts at WTO

Events        &        Resources
Events	18 October, Geneva, Switzerland. BRUNDTLAND REPORT + 20, ECOLOMICS INTERNATIONAL + 5: QUO VADIS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?. The Roundtable is organised by the Trade and Environment Research Group (T&ERG), Faculty of Law and EcoLomics International, Geneva. This Roundtable will take stock of the impact of the widely disseminated and translated publication of the Brundtland Report Our Common Future, first released 20 years ago. At the same time, the meeting will allow participants to discuss the more focused concept EcoLomics, which designates the ecology-economics interface. The meeting will seek to enrich the debate on the opportunities and challenges of the sustainable development concept in today's legal, political, environmental and socio-economic context. Internet: http://www.ecolomics-international.org/affil_progr_brundtland_plus_20_and_ecolomics_plus_5.pdf
Resources	ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: RECLAIMING POLICY SPACE: DOMESTIC RESOURCE MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT STATES. By the UN Centre for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 26 September 2007. The objective of this year's report is to examine the potential of African countries to increase their total domestic financial resource envelope in order to reduce dependence on official development assistance (ODA) and diversify their development resources. A complementary objective of the report is to examine how to channel these resources to productive investments in order to increase their efficiency. Internet: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=8996&intItemID=2068&lang=1
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.