WTO Takes Step Toward Accord Cutting Duties, Farm Aid

World Trade Organization negotiators agreed on the outline of an accord cutting farm aid and tariffs on manufactured goods, taking a step toward a 147-nation pact the World Bank says may add $500 billion to the global economy.

Representatives of WTO nations rescued trade talks that collapsed last September in Cancun, Mexico, overcoming differences between rich and poor countries on agriculture and pledging to strike a final accord that lowers border barriers and enables exporters to sell their goods in more markets.

``The WTO has reached a monumental agreement on agriculture,'' Judith Lee, an international trade lawyer with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Washington, said in an interview after five days of WTO talks in Geneva. ``Even though it may not be as comprehensive as some developing countries would like, it represents the most significant progress on the most intractable issue that the organization has dealt with.''

Companies such as Unilever and Microsoft Corp. are pushing for a broad accord that the World Bank says may pull 140 million people out of poverty and add $350 billion to developing countries' annual incomes by 2015. Obstacles remain: With U.S. elections and a change of European Union administration likely to steer the world's two biggest trading blocs' attention away from trade, a global pact may not be possible for years.

New Faces

Three men who are central to the talks -- WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick -- may all be out of office by the time negotiations resume in earnest. Lamy's mandate runs out in November and Supachai's term ends next September. Zoellick will lose his job if U.S. President George W. Bush isn't re-elected.

Negotiators still have a lot of work to do before a broad agreement is possible, Lamy told reporters, adding that ``we've broadly covered 50 percent of the road'' to a final pact.

Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath said. The WTO may be able to cobble together a global agreement by 2006, though to do so ``it's got to move at the same pace as in the last six months,'' he said. ``We must keep the momentum.''

Supachai told journalists after the accord was secured that WTO members had been urged ``to do the best they can do so the final agreement can be reached some time in the foreseeable future.'' He declined to elaborate.