Regional Trade Dialogue on ‘Linking Trade Policies to National and Regional Development Agenda’
April 27-28, 2006, Naivasha, Kenya

Summary
CUTS-Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment, Nairobi (CUTS-NRC)in partnership with the Nairobi office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), will be holding a regional conference on linking trade policies to national and regional development agenda on April 27-28, 2006 at Naivasha, Kenya.

Purpose
This dialogue aims;

• To facilitate non-state participation in external trade and development of Kenya’s position for trade negotiation.
• To equip non-state actors, trade policy practioners and government officials and facilitate their participation in the development of trading policy and position on regional and international agreements and negotiations that Eastern Africa develops and adopts as well as in participation in external trade and implementation of trade agreements.

Background of the Seminar
Due to the extreme poverty in the regional countries much is being done by the states towards poverty eradication. There is ongoing researches for better strategies to combat this poverty prevalence through involvement of strategic stakeholders who are the key players in development of trade policies and development as an agenda. CUTS –NRC appreciates this fact and takes the lead by drawing together the East African countries viz. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Ethiopia. The first three are already far ahead in state integration with the soul purpose of trade and economic liberalisation.

And this is why CUTS-NRC is well ahead in preparing the environment through capacity building. The seminar will provide the concrete case studies and evidences, which have worked in other selected countries including those of South and South East Asia, namely Malaysia and Cambodia. This will be done with the focus of striving to have a better cross-fertilisation of ideas, lessons and experiences of economic liberalisation.

Seminar Papers: The papers will discuss the ‘country experiences’ with the aim of;

• Sharing the country experiences (Analysis of countries’ trade policies and their potential possible ways of regional cooperation);
• Building and strengthening capacity in trade policy; and
• Linking national trade policy and development planning in the context of current regional and global trade environment.

Method of Facilitation
Advocacy documents will include policy briefs, discussion papers, e-newsletters and a handbook on, ‘recommendations made for trade policies during the dialogue’. The conference will be an ideal platform for South-South dialogue between state and non-state actors.

For further information please contact:
Mr Clement Onyango
Consumer Unity & Trust Society
Centre for International Trade Economics and Environment (CUTS-CITEE)
Co-op Trust Plaza- 1st Floor
Lower Hill Road, Upper Hill
P.O.BOX 8188, 00200
Nairobi, Kenya.
Ph: +254 -20 -2734925 or 2734926
Fax: +254-20- 2734925
Mobile: +254 721 612 664
Email 1: nairobi@cuts.org Or cutsnrc@wananchi.com
Web site : www.cuts-international.org

CUTS Centre for International Trade Economics & Environment (CUTS-CITEE) Jaipur, India, will host an inception workshop of phase II of the Project WTO Doha Round & South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiations on 21-22 April 2006 in Jaipur. The project has been named as SAFIT-II (South Asia Forum for International Trade). The event will be held at the hotel Country Inn & Suites, Jaipur.

The purpose of the workshop is to deliberate on the scope and methodology of the study as well as agree on the work programme. It will be a focused and close group meeting of 12-15 people i.e. only researchers and select expert group.

The project will be implemented in five South Asian Countries, viz. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka in partnership with various organisations. It would focus on the following issues, identified from the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial text:
• Duty & Quota Free Market Access
• Services
• Preference Erosion and Aid for Trade
• Agriculture: Special Products and Special Safeguard Measures
• Non-Tariff Barriers

One of the objectives of this project is to provide negotiating inputs to the negotiators and policy makers while taking into account the position civil society (including NGOs, business bodies, trade unions, women groups, particularly those working on gender and trade linkages) for the successful completion of the Doha Round in December 2006.

Event Backgrounder

For further information please contact
Purnima Purohit (pp@cuts.org)
Simi T B (stb@cuts.org)

CUTS Calcutta Resource Centre (CUTS-CRC) is organising a panel discussion on ‘Rational Use of Drugs: Are Doctors Alone Responsible?’ to commemorate the World Health Day, at Kolkata, West Bengal, on April 07, 2006. While interacting with people, it becomes clear that the very concept of ‘Rational Use of Drugs’ (RuD) starts from the doctor. Therefore, it is a matter of debate whether or not a stakeholder such as pharmacist or drug manufacturer or patient has a role to play to create good practices in the society.

This panel discussion will highlight some of the issues related to the drug use where there is a mounting confusion among different stakeholders. The aim of the programme would be to identify the ultimate role of stakeholders on the issue of RuD in the society.

For further information please contact
Sumanta Biswas
Email: calcutta@cuts.org

Circle-level Orientation of CUTS-FES Power Sector Reforms
(Sawai Madhopur) – Phase II
June 18, 2005 to May 20, 2006, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

As part of commencing the activities of the Phase II of CUTS-Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Project on 'Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms’, daylong orientation workshops will be organised in 12 identified circles of Rajasthan, India, from June 18, 2005 to May 20, 2006. The second workshop, in the series, will be organised in Sawai Madhopur on June 18, 2005.

The major objective of the programme is to facilitate an active involvement of consumers in the power sector reforms.

For further information, please contact
Deepak Saxena
CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research & Training (CUTS-CART)
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
D-222, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park
Jaipur 302016, India
Ph: 91.141.5133259, 2282 823/2282482
Fax: 91.141.5104258
Email: cart@cuts.org

Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park
Jaipur 302016, Rajasthan, India
Email: cuts@cuts.org
Phone: 91.141.228 2821
Fax: 91.141.228 2485