KEY POINTS:
Talks on a deal to free up world trade are making progress, developing country leaders said yesterday, but the chairman of key industry negotiations said more needed to be done to reach an agreement by the year's end.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Doha round of trade talks, launched six years ago to boost the global economy and help poor countries export more, could end in a deal by the end of the year despite remaining obstacles.
"Nothing is decided but I think we are close to that," said Lula, who met the leaders of India and South Africa in Pretoria last week and spoke with United States President George W. Bush by telephone.
India's Trade Minister, Kamal Nath, also sounded a positive note, saying the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks had progressed over the past two months.
The US and European Union are calling on developing countries to open up their markets for manufacturers by cutting import tariffs in return for cuts by rich countries to trade-distorting subsidies and tariffs on farm goods.
Developing countries say proposals now on the table are not in the spirit of the Doha round's development mandate because they require poor countries to cut their industrial tariffs by more than rich countries would do.
Some also worry that opening up food markets could hurt millions of subsistence farmers.
Canada's WTO ambassador, Don Stephenson, who chairs the industry talks, proposed in July that developed countries would cut tariffs in line with a formula where the lower the coefficient, the deeper the cuts in tariffs.
He proposed 19-23 for developing countries and 8-9 for richer nations.
Stephenson said he would continue talks for the next two weeks and aim to produce a revision of his July negotiating text by the middle of next month.
Crawford Falconer, the New Zealand ambassador and chairman of the WTO's agriculture talks, has said he too aims to produce a revised negotiating text in mid-November.
