BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
SEVERAL ACP COUNTRIES SIGN EPAs WITH BRUSSELS, AS GROUP CONTINUES TO SPLINTER	With an end-year deadline looming, some countries in eastern and southern Africa have broken away from regional negotiating blocs to sign separate economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the EU. The prospect of losing preferential access to the EU market helped push these countriesto agree to open their own economies to a wide range of European imports.
TAIWAN DROPS OPPOSITION TO CHINESE APPELLATE BODY JUDGE, UNBLOCKING WTO DISPUTE SYSTEM	Taiwan on 27 November dropped its opposition to the appointment of a Chinese lawyer to the WTO appellate body, paving the way for her and three other judges to be appointed to the global trade arbiter's highest court. The move unblocked the operation of the WTO dispute settlement system, after the row over attorney Zhang Yuejiao had briefly threatened to escalate into a "crisis."
WHO MEETING MAKES SLOW PROGRESS ON PREPAREDNESS FOR AVIAN FLU PANDEMIC	Government health officials made limited progress in an attempt to find common ground on avian flu preparedness, despite four days of talks under the direction of the World Health Organization last week. Negotiations on improving surveillance and promoting vaccine research and development bogged down amidst procedural concerns and differing views, leaving many countries unhappy.
WTO GLOBAL REVIEW PUTS 'SPOTLIGHT' ON AID-FOR-TRADE	Aid donors and recipients demonstrated "general convergence" on how to proceed with ramping up assistance aimed at boosting poor countries' ability to participate in international trade, sources said after a WTO conference on aid-for-trade in Geneva last week.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
Still Stuck on Auto Trade, EU- Korea FTA Talks to Continue Into Next Year	WTO Members Scrutinise US Ag Subsidy Notification; FAO Warns of High Food Prices

Events        &        Resources
Events	29 November, Cairo, Egypt. MINISTERIAL MEETING OF THE GOOD GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT IN ARAB COUNTRIES INITIATIVE. Organised by the OECD-MENA Governance Programme, the UN Development Programme and the Egyptian Ministry for Administrative Development. Internet: http://www.oecd.org/pages/0,3417,en_34645207_34645555_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
Resources	INTEGRATING DEVELOPMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE. By the South Centre, November 2007. This publication is intended to provide readers, especially developing country policymakers and negotiators on development and climate change issues, with a policy paper that provides an integrated development-oriented approach to climate change issues with recommendations on the mandate and principles that should be reflected in any post-2012 global policy regime on climate change. Internet: http://www.southcentre.org/publications/AnalyticalNotes
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.