Unexpected signs of progress emerged last night from the fifth day of tense negotiations among trade ministers as they struggled to revive the Doha round of world trade talks.
A five-hour meeting between the seven negotiating partners at the core of the talks – India, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, the US and the EU – agreed to move matters forwards on the basis of a plan proposed by Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation’s director-general. But negotiators stressed that the plan provided only the broad basis for an agreement, and that big differences remained.
