Eriadu Trade Summit

The Eriadu Trade Summit, also known as the Eriadu Conference, or simply Eriadu Summit, was an event proposed by Senator Palpatine in 33 BBY, ostensibly to gather all parties affected by Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum's proposal to allow the Trade Federation an increase in standing permissible armament in exchange for Galactic Senate taxation of free-trade zones. The Nebula Front, a radical political group that opposed the Trade Federation, was specifically not allowed to attend the event. That decision, as it combined with the Front's longstanding disquiet and its mistrust of the Republic Senate, resulted in the first of two staged "attempts" on Valorum's life by the spurned Nebula Front's extremist leadership—the first occurring on Coruscant, and the second, at the Summit itself. The well-publicized event was held on the planet of Eriadu, an important trade world in the Outer Rim.

As it played out, however, the Trade Summit ended in disaster. The majority of the Trade Federation Directorate—the enemy's true target—was assassinated by its own security force in a plan carefully orchestrated by Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, who made the Nebula Front appear responsible for the murders. No consensus was reached at Eriadu regarding the taxation of trade routes, and the Trade Federation was placed under the leadership of Nute Gunray, who would proceed—in protest of the Senate's subsequent legislation to tax the free-trade zones anyway, without any reciprocal agreement to benefit or protect the Federation whatsoever—to blockade all trade to the planet of Naboo.

Text and facts from the “Eriadu Trade Summit” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.