Trade : Senior officials to meet week of 5 May on services (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
The Chair of the Trade Negotiations Committee of the WTO on Thursday has proposed holding a round of bilaterals in the week of 5 May among senior officials to prepare for a "signalling" conference aimed at moving forward the services negotiations in the WTO.

Finance : BCBS moves to strengthen the resilience of the banking system (PRIV)
(Chakravarthi Raghavan, Geneva)
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) announced Wednesday a series of steps being taken, with new rules to tighten regulatory frameworks for banking and banking supervision "to help the banking system be more resilient to financial shocks."

Trade : Questionable timing for tighter GATS rules, liberalized banking (PRIV)
(Andrew Cornford, Geneva)
The new efforts to breathe life into the Doha round of trade negotiations at the WTO are targeting international trade in services as well as in manufactures and agriculture.

Trade : Many divergences still in latest UNCTAD-XII draft text (PRIV)
(Vice Yu, Geneva)
On 7 April 2008, at its plenary meeting, the Preparatory Committee of the Trade and Development Board decided to transmit the draft UNCTAD XII Negotiated Text (version as of 9 April 2008, 11.00 am), to the UNCTAD XII in Accra (taking place on 20-25 April). Of the 223 paragraphs in the text, 68 remain to be negotiated.