BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS:	Due to a public holiday, the next issue of BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest will be published on 2 April.
Lead Stories
NAMA TALKS BUDGE SLIGHTLY, AS WTO MEMBERS LOOK FORWARD	After months of near-complete deadlock, some hints of flexibility have emerged in the Doha round talks on trade in industrial goods, officials say.Although it remains unclear whether governments will be able to bridge their differences, many countries have reportedly demonstrated willingness to consider some potential ideas circulated by the chair of the WTO negotiating committee on how developing countries might trade deeper tariff cuts off against wider exceptions for some products, so as to reach an acceptable compromise.
NEW AG DRAFT TEXT DELAYED BY DIFFERENCES ON SENSITIVE PRODUCTS DATA	Progress in the Doha Round agriculture talks is unlikely unless a handful of competitive farm exporters and major import markets manage to resolve some technical issues affecting future market-opening for the 'sensitive' agricultural products eligible for gentler tariff cuts, the chair of the WTO negotiating committee suggested last week..
CALL FOR WORK ON EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS IN WIPO COPYRIGHT COMMITTEE	Exceptions and limitations to copyright protection dominated discussions in a key World Intellectual Property Organization committee last week.Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Uruguay put forward a work plan calling for global norms establishing a "minimum mandatory [level of] exceptions and limitations particularly with regard to educational activities, people with disabilities, libraries and archives, and exceptions that foster technological innovation."
TRIPS COUNCIL ONCE AGAIN MARKED BY DIVISIONS OVER DISCLOSURE AMENDMENT	Longstanding differences on whether WTO rules should be altered to require patent applicants to disclose the use of any biological resources or associated traditional knowledge - on pain of patent revocation - featured prominently at a 13 March meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

In Brief	WTO in Brief
US to Resume Trade Talks with Thailand, Malaysia

Events        &        Resources
Events	25 March 2008, Tokyo Japan. LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOUTH-SOUTH TRADE IN ASIAN REGIONS: UNCTAD XII PRE-EVENT. In preparation for UNCTAD XII, to be held from 20 to 25 April 2008 in Accra, Ghana, UNCTAD and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) are jointly organizing a one-day workshop, to be held at JETRO headquarters in Tokyo. The main purpose of the workshop will be to examine the joint JETRO-UNCTAD publication entitled "South-South trade and regional trade agreements in Asia", including the implications of such trade and agreements for Asian developing countries and South-South trade in general. At the invitation of JETRO, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD will deliver a keynote speech at the workshop. Both UNCTAD and JETRO will deliver presentations on the publication, which will be followed by a panel discussion in which experts from business and academia will discuss further issues associated with the joint research, including lessons that can be drawn from the Asian experience for other developing countries. For more information, please refer to the meeting website at http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=1942&lang=1&m=15221&year=2008&month=3
Resources	ASSURING DEVELOPMENT GAINS AND POVERTY REDUCTION FROM TRADE: THE LABOUR MOBILITY AND SKILLS TRADE DIMENSION. By Lakshmi Puri. UNCTAD, 1 March 2008. It is becoming increasingly clear that the issue of global labour movement and integration is a key topic at the interface of trade, development and globalization. In 2005 the global labour force numbered 2.8 billion, of which 2.25 billion was developing country labour force. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of the impact on trade, development and poverty reduction brought about by global labour movement and integration. It attempts to answer the question as to how temporary labour mobility can be better managed so as to contribute to improving people´s livelihood and welfare prospects while at the same time moving closer to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, in particular the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The paper looks at temporary labour mobility and skills trade as it relates to trade and development from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. It sets out the problem of labour mobility, the state of play in the global labour market, push-pull factors that cause labour mobility and succinctly, the seven inconsistencies of the labour movement conundrum. A detailed examination of the socio-economic costs and benefits to sending and receiving countries provides a balanced overview of the picture. From the trade perspective the paper argues that progress in allowing temporary movement of labour by means of multilateral and regional or bilateral agreements is important to further good global governance, coherence and solidarity necessary for achieving Millennium Development Goals. Available online at http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=9685&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.