In advance of the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that will take place December 13th-18th in Hong Kong, there have been persistent reports that the talks are headed for failure. The United States and its supporters in the WTO have been pushing to lessen trade barriers and open new markets as part of the Doha Round of trade negotiations. Debate over agricultural subsidies seems likely to delay any agreement on the Doha Round with European Trade Union Commissioner Peter Mandelson stating that there would be no agreement on the Doha Round in Hong Kong.
The likely failure at the upcoming WTO Summit comes less than a week after the United States failure to get an agreement on how to proceed with the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) at the recent Summit of the Americas in Argentina.
