UNCTAD XII pre-events - South-South Trade in Asia
March and April 2008

Tokyo on 25th March 2008, and Geneva on 2 April 2008 looked at linkages between South-South trade performance in Asia and a role of RTAs and learned policy implications from the experiences in Asia.

TDI - Trade and Development Index
6 November 2007

Launch of the publication: Developing Countries in International Trade 2007 - Trade and Development Index. The TDI will be simultaneously launched on 6 November 2007 in Washington, D.C. (at the National Press Club), as well as in New Delhi and Istanbul.

South-South Trade
16-17 October 2007

Commerce between developing countries -- often called "South-South trade" -- is expanding rapidly, but harnessing its benefits to reduce poverty, create stable growth, and help developing nations diversify their economies is posing a challenge for nations caught up in this quickly changing global market.

An UNCTAD expert meeting, held 16-17 October 2007, focused on "participation of developing countries in new and dynamic sectors of world trade: the South-South dimension." Those who set government policy, researchers, and businessmen exchanged information on how to obtain development gains from South-South trade, and on how to promote further trade between developing nations in dynamic and new sectors that foster the most durable and widespread kinds of economic expansion and positive development impacts.

Coping with WTO Trade Reforms: Mixed impact for Developing Countries

According to an UNCTAD study of the WTO NAMA negotiations, The liberalization of trade in industrial products envisaged under the current WTO talks could potentially increase developing-country exports by $175 billion. However, these gains will be possible only through a development-centred agreement and strategies to reduce short-term structural adjustment costs, such as loss of tariff revenues, reduced output, employment losses and real wage reductions.

Meeting on Adjusting to Trade Reforms

Expectations for the WTO negotiations, as well as recent experiences of adjustment in developing countries, has been discussed by government officials, trade negotiators and civil society groups at an UNCTAD meeting in Geneva, held in January 2005