Leaders praise WTO trade agreement

updated 8:44 a.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005

HONG KONG - Government leaders on Monday praised a WTO trade agreement to end farm export subsidies but said much work remains to reach a broader, binding global trade treaty by late 2006.

The agreement late Sunday was a badly needed breakthrough for the World Trade Organization, whose credibility was on the line following devastating collapses of two of its last three key meetings.

After six days of intense negotiations, delegates from both wealthy and poor countries reconciled their conflicting interests, agreeing to eliminate farm export subsidies by 2013, work toward dismantling trade barriers in manufacturing and services and to provide greater protections and support for developing countries.

“You put the round back on track. You gave it a new sense of urgency,” a jubilant WTO chief Pascal Lamy told the delegates.

Developing nations felt the final agreement addressed many of their concerns, from opening up rich nations’ farming markets to measures that could enable the world’s poorest countries to increase their tiny share in global trade.

“We welcome it,” said India’s Trade Minister Kamal Nath. “It is focused and it strikes at various problems of developing countries.”

But the outcome of the six-day meeting left some disappointed — and puts pressure on the WTO if it hopes to conclude a binding global trade treaty by the end of next year.

“The agreement we have reached, if it didn’t make the conference a success it certainly saved it from failure,” said EU trade chief Peter Mandelson.

Pushing back the date for eliminating farm export subsidies to 2013 was a key demand of the 25-nation EU, which held out against intense pressure from Brazil and other developing nations to end the payments by 2010. Developing nations say the subsidies undercut their competitive advantage in farm trade and threaten the livelihood of their poor farmers.

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