Hong Kong 13-18 Dec. 2005

The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference  
Hong Kong, China, 13 to 18 December 2005.

Ministers made a last-ditch effort to rescue a global trade pact yesterday, working around the clock to break deadlocks on ending farm export subsidies and boosting the exports of impoverished nations.

Diplomats said a failure to resolve the sticking points before the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks end on Sunday would reduce the chances of a deal next year freeing up global business in farm and industrial goods and services.

"Either everything will unravel and we will have another Cancun situation -- I hope it won't happen -- or we'll have lowered ambitions in the meeting in Hong Kong," Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi told Reuters in an interview.

Kituyi, who has mediated on agricultural issues at the talks in Hong Kong since they got under way on Monday, was referring to the acrimonious collapse of negotiations on the so-called Doha trade round at a WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, two years ago.

The United States put a brave face on the floundering talks.

"As we approach the final 24 hours of the negotiations we have a very large opportunity to put together an outcome that would be extremely positive for development ... it is just beyond our fingertips," said Deputy Trade Representative Peter Allgeier.

But diplomats said that when negotiators emerged bleary-eyed from a private "green room" discussion at 5 a.m. there was no agreement on setting a date for ending farm export subsidies because of resistance from the European Union.

The EU says the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand must agree to reforms of their farm export systems first.

A draft text put to all 149 of the WTO's member states had 2010 as the proposed date for an export subsidies cut-off, but it was in brackets which meant it could de deleted.

"It's a sad day when we're getting excited about an end-date in brackets," said Bob Stallman, head of the United States' biggest farm group, the American Farm Bureau Federation.

One official said the EU was "unhappy with the language in the draft on export competition and domestic support."

Supporters of a trade deal say it could inject new zest into the global economy and lift millions out of poverty, but detractors say it will only bring more profits for rich nations and their companies at the expense of the developing world