WTO misses trade talks deadline

Smaller countries have clashed with bigger WTO members

Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have failed to reach an agreement which would restart free-trade talks that were abandoned earlier this year.

Director General of the WTO Supachai Panitchpakdi said that while progress had been made at a meeting in Geneva, there was still a long way to go.

Differences on agricultural subsidies and tariffs on farm and industrial products proved difficult to resolve.

However, envoys were optimistic they would find common ground next year.

Regaining momentum

The WTO's last ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September collapsed with tensions over farm subsidies, industrial tariffs and textile trade left unresolved.

Anger from the G20 club of developing nations over rich nations' subsidies to their own farmers was a major reason for the talks' collapse.

The Geneva meeting was originally intended to keep up the pressure on WTO members by setting a fresh deadline.

Mr Panitchpakdi said on Monday that "our collective aim for today, as instructed by ministers in Cancun, was to arrive at a point where negotiations can resume full momentum".

"We are not at this point yet, but we should not be disheartened".

Mr Panitchpaki urged members nations to translate their goodwill into action.

Getting closer?

The talks got a boost on Friday when negotiators from the G20 coalition of developing nations and the European Union said their views had got closer.

They issued a joint statement after their summit in Brasilia saying their talks had been "fruitful and positive with both sides explaining their positions in a businesslike manner".

But it was always going to be an uphill struggle in Geneva, according to the BBC's economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

"Agricultural subsidies are a perennial source of contention in the WTO," he said.

WTO Chairman Carlos Perez del Castillo highlighted the problems last week when he said that members would need to make "dramatic" shifts in position to avoid failure in Geneva.