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Brasilia, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro, Cairns, Batam, Geneva, Brussels, Washington, are only some of the places where high level meetings aimed at restarting the stalled Doha trade negotiations have taken place since the de facto suspension of negotiations on July 27. With different groups of countries involved in various discussions with changing priorities, interested groups and citizens around the world are having a hard time following what negotiators are offering. Here is an update from Geneva on what has happened over the last two months and some developments to monitor.

Today, Friends of the Earth Europe and the Seattle to Brussels Network demanded that the European Union stops making policy decisions biased towards business interests. Trade and environmental campaigners staged an action outside the annual back-pat of the Confederation of European Business (UNICE) today, attended by six European Commissioners and called 'Why do companies care about Europe?'.

Trade envoys from a score of countries are making intense efforts to find the 'right spark' to reignite the suspended Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations soon.

Poor countries must not be forced into opening markets or obliged to accept new rules governing foreign investment and competition law, the UK has told the European Commission.

Here are additional pieces of evidence that the current Doha Round negotiations would be detrimental to DCs, particularly the poorest ones, those in Sub-Saharan Africa. They complement the four references already circulated by War on want for the Westminster Hall Debate on World Trade of 12 October 2006.

This 22-page document gives a general overview of free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) that have been signed or are being negotiated all over the world.

The final World Trade Organization panel ruling on the European Union's moratorium on approvals of products with genetically modified organisms contains findings that will likely limit the extent to which future WTO panels will consider multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), according to private-sector sources.

The European Union and India stepped up free-trade negotiations that could one day link two of the world's biggest markets. Both sides said they hope to complete a deal by early 2009.

The Kenyan Trade Minister, Mukhisha Kituyi,

BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (IPS) - A proposal by Senegalese Trade Minister Mamadou Diop to postpone the 2008 deadline for signing trade agreements with the European Union found much support at a meeting here Thursday.