World trade negotiators start last dash for deal

The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Round, launched in 2001, missed its end-2004 target date for conclusion, and member states will now try to wrap up most of the hard bargaining by the time ministers meet in Hong Kong in mid-December.

A pact could inject more than $500-billion a year into the world’s economy and lift millions out of poverty, according to economists, but the talks are locked in wrangling over subsidies and opening markets for goods ranging from farm products to services such as telecommunications and tourism.

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