4th Ministerial, Doha 2001

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Sunday there would be no new world trade agreement at a summit in Hong Kong next month unless the United States and Brazil compromised.

Top WTO negotiators said they had failed to bridge key differences on a global trade accord in talks this week and acknowledged that the scope of a crucial ministerial meeting in Hong Kong next month would have to be scaled back.

Preparations for the World Trade Organization's important ministerial conference in Hong Kong were thrown into disarray following two days of fruitless ministerial talks in Geneva Nov. 8-9, where member governments essentially gave up on achieving their stated goals for the December gathering.

Most members of Congress do not think much at all of the ongoing Doha Development Agenda of trade negotiations and when they hear that the United States is getting little of what it is demanding in agricultural and industrial products market access, they think even less of it

A Mini-Ministerial meeting was under way at the WTO this afternoon in an attempt by the Director-General Pascal Lamy to provide some political momentum to the faltering preparatory process for the Hong Kong Ministerial conference in mid-December.

Trade ministers appeared ready on Tuesday to discuss lowering expectations for a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting next month because their differences are too wide.

The five trade ministers from the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil and Japan who met here in an effort to reach a breakthrough in the stalled Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations practiced diplomatic 'brinkmanship' and restated 'inflexible' positions, but ended on a 'disappointing' note leaving attainment of the full modalities in agriculture and industrial goods trade for next month