Revealing the figures, developers argue, would compromise sensitive trade secrets.
The politically sensitive trade gap with China fell to $16.5 billion from $18.3 billion a month earlier.
Textiles are the most sensitive trade issue for poor nations because they depend on basic manufactured goods to provide jobs.
"There are real opportunities to provide appropriate support and pathways to peace through sensitive trade relationships", says Simon Constantine, head of ethical buying at Lush.
Dieter Helm, head of OXERA, an energy consultancy, points out that a wider set of objectives has involved regulators in politically sensitive trade-offs.
One indication of how sensitive trade has become as a political issue was a decision by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, a strong proponent of global trade, to bypass Iowa's caucus vote.
A record 26.7percentt plunge in exports, bigger than a 14.4percentt fall in imports, pushed Japan's once politically sensitive trade balance into a deficit of 223.4 billion yen ($2.48 billion) in November.
The students, sequestered in a conference room in the W.T.O.'s building with spectacular views of Lake Geneva, concentrated on long and tough negotiations on the most sensitive trade issues, oblivious to the sunny weather outside.
Some 50 students from two dozen countries ran into the same kinds of problems when they tried to find answers to half a dozen of the most sensitive trade issues, including child labor.
To be certified, companies apparently would have to give government-connected testing laboratories encryption algorithms, software source code and design specifications that, for many of the products, are regarded as sensitive trade secrets.
