BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

Lead Stories
DIVIDE OVER 'EXCHANGE RATE' STYMIES PROGRESS IN DOHA ROUND TALKS	For any commercial exchange to work out, buyers and sellers need to be able to agree on a price. Without overlap between what a carpet salesman is willing to accept and what a wily customer deems to be a fair bargain, there will be no deal. This also holds true for the long-running Doha Round of global trade talks. WTO Members currently differ deeply on what constitutes a reasonable 'exchange rate' between the price they are willing to pay on farm subsidies, agricultural tariffs, or manufacturing duties, and the concessions they want in return from their trading partners
WITHOUT EPA, NIGERIAN COCOA PROCESSORS LOSE MILLIONS AS EU IMPOSES TARIFFS	Two months after losing preferential access to EU markets, Nigerian cocoa processors and producers face millions of dollars in losses, as the effects of poor infrastructure and high operating costs are compounded by higher tariffs and competition from neighbouring countries that retained duty-free access to Europe. Brussels slapped tariffs on cocoa products and other exports from Nigeria at the beginning of this year, staying true to its warnings after the West African country decided not to sign an economic partnership agreement with the EU by the end of 2007. All but a few of the 30-odd relatively richer members of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific group of countries, faced with the loss of the same trade preferences, signed EPAs with the EU late last year, thus preserving market access. Least-developed countries retained wide-ranging duty-free access under the EU's 'Everything but Arms' initiative.

In Brief	WTO in Brief
CHINA, NEW ZEALAND TO INK FREE TRADE AGREEMENT IN APRIL	WTO APPROVES AID FOR TRADE ROADMAP

Events        &        Resources
Events	28-29 February, Maseru, Lesotho. LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 2008. The purpose of the Conference is to review progress made in the WTO Doha Development Round of negotiations since the LDC Trade Ministers meeting of 2005 held in Livingstone, Zambia and followed by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005. The Conference will also assess and address the revised texts on Agriculture and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) as well as any progress made in other areas so far. The objective will be to revise and consolidate LDC's positions on relevant issues as a basis for continuing consultations. For more information, please refer to http://www.ldcgroups.org/ldc_general.php
Resources	AID FOR TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT. Edited by Dominique Njinkeu and Hugo Cameron. Cambridge University Press, December 2008. Following in the wake of the World Trade Organization's engagement with Aid for Trade, this book brings together a range of perspectives around this emerging issue. The collection of articles in this volume presents many of the ideas elaborated through research conducted by International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP) since 2005 and is intended to provide a basis for further study. Since many of the contributions on aid for trade to date have come from the North, the book looks to deepen the debate by forwarding voices and experiences from the South. The book traces the evolution of Aid for Trade from its beginnings and examines the global architecture, modalities, and costs associated with its implementation. Drawing on lessons from national and regional experiences, this book further explores ways in which Aid for Trade can both move forward and become a real tool for poverty reduction in beneficiary countries. For more information, please refer to http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521889513 .
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.