Press reports indicate that plans for a meeting where trade ministers could work out a preliminary Doha Round agreement are slipping again due to continued disagreement on certain issues in the agriculture and non-agricultural market access talks.

The meeting had been targeted for the week of May 19 on the strength of an apparent agreement among a small group of countries on elements of the farm goods negotiations, but there have been difficulties in finalizing that deal and obtaining approval from the broader WTO membership.

As a result, that meeting is increasingly unlikely to be held until later this summer, further jeopardizing the goal of securing a final Doha Round agreement by the end of this year.


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