Global trade talks show signs of faltering as negotiators face "mountain"

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=14&u=/afp/20040712/ts_afp/wto_trade_farm_subsidies_040712141500

Global trade talks show signs of faltering as negotiators face "mountain"

GENEVA (AFP) - Trade ministers stepped up a campaign to overcome deadlock on agriculture at a meeting of developing countries, amid signs that attempts to revive global free trade talks by the end of this month were faltering.

"The work in front of us is the size of a mountain. Everybody is willing to make an effort but this is an uphill battle," Argentina's ambassador at the WTO in Geneva, Alfredo Chiaradia, told AFP.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy were due to take part in the meeting of G90 developing nations in Mauritius, along with WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakhdi.

The 147 WTO members have set themselves an end July deadline to agree on the broad outline of the way ahead for the current round of trade liberalisation talks.

The meeting on the Indian Ocean island came hours after a weekend gathering of five trading powers ended in Paris without a breakthrough on the issue of agriculture, a major obstacle in the talks at the WTO. <snip>

"I don't see the US moving on domestic support, I don't see the EU moving on market access, I don't see the light in many sectors," Chiaradia said. <snip>