WTO hopes to clear key farming hurdle next week

Major countries in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) hope to resolve a key technical issue in agriculture next week that is holding up progress towards a new global trade deal, diplomats and officials said on Friday.

Leading food importers such as the European Union and Japan, and exporters such as Australia and Brazil, will get together on Monday to show whether they have agreed on a scheme to allow countries to shield politically sensitive products from the full force of tariff cuts.

The issue has bedevilled the Doha round of trade talks for months, but after importers and exporters spent the weeks on either side of the Easter holiday crunching numbers there were signs they were ready to move ahead, diplomats said.

"The rumours are that they're making progress," New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who chairs the agriculture talks in the Doha round, told Reuters.

Falconer has convened a meeting for Monday. If leading importers and exporters can convince other major players that they have a workable system for the sensitive products, the farm talks can move on to other contentious areas later in the week.

But with many African delegations away next week at a meeting of African Union finance and trade ministers, it will be difficult to discuss issues of direct interest to the continent, such as cotton, tropical products and preferences.