BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
AG CHAIR TO ISSUE REVISED DRAFT TEXT BY END JANUARY	The chair of the WTO agriculture talks has told Members that he plans to circulate a revised draft 'modalities' text by the end of the month, setting out formulae and figures for tariff and subsidy cuts. Negotiators have been keenly awaiting the detailed draft deal, which would represent an important milestone on the long and uncertain road to a Doha Round agreement on liberalising global trade. It would update a July 2007 text that provided little in the way of specifics on several issues in the talks.
ANTIGUA AWARDED MODEST CROSS-RETALIATION RIGHTS IN GAMBLING DISPUTE WITH US	Antigua and Barbuda last month won the right to retaliate against US intellectual property, including patents and copyrights, as part of their longstanding WTO dispute on internet gambling. However, the value of the penalties Antigua was awarded fell far short of what it had initially sought.
G-20 RELEASES SIX NEW AGRICULTURE PROPOSALS	The G-20, an influential alliance of developing countries in the Doha Round agriculture negotiations, released six proposals on 17 December 2007, clarifying their position on several issues in the talks.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
US Senate Passes Farm Bill, Despite Threat of Veto, WTO Litigation

Events        &        Resources
Events	9-11 December, Berlin, Germany. FROM RED TAPE REDUCTION TO A BETTER REGULATION STRATEGY?. Organised by the International Regulatory Reform Conference (IRRC) and hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation, this conference is designed to define a common ground that can make regulatory reform work everyone. IRRC hopes this will contribute to mutual policy-learning and the transfer of knowledge that is necessary for finding more effective and less burdensome ways of regulating modern life. Internet: http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xchg/bst_engl/hs.xsl/prj_53890_53899.htm
Resources	COMPLIANCE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE COMMITMENTS: THE G8 RECORD, 1975-2007. By John Kirton and Jenilee Guebert. G8 Research Group, November 2007. The report assesses the compliance of G8 members with their climate change commitments, since the G7/8 started generating them in 1987 through to 2007. G8 compliance earns a respectable B. The report is available at http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/evaluations/compliance-climate.html.
Call for Applications	Mistra is a Swedish research foundation that supports environmental research aimed at solving strategic environmental problems. It is currently financing a research programme on Trade and Environment - ENTWINED - and is seeking candidates for a PhD position that will be incorporated into the programme. It is seeking candidates from your institution who, with Mistra's funding, would either be starting a PhD programme of study in 2008 or be finished their course programme and be starting their own research. The funding will cover between 2 and 4 years of study at your organisation as well as 1 year at the Swedish Foreign Ministry's International Trade Unit in Stockholm, Sweden - to be finalised once the funds have been awarded. The successful candidate will be a qualified and eligible, or current, PhD student at your department within a relevant field of social sciences; have an expressed interest in environmental policy, international relations, international law, economics, or similar; include maximum one page describing their research interests; speak and write fluent English; and start in 2008. The deadline for submission of applications is 4 April 2008. Please submit 1 or maximum 2 candidates to: Mark Sanctuary, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Box 21060 11247, Stockholm, Sweden. For more on Mistra, go to: www.mistra.org. For more on ENTWINED, go to: www.entwined.se.
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.