Agriculture blocks WTO accord

THE European Union's Common Agricultural Policy has emerged as the most significant obstacle to agreement on a new trade liberalisation round at the meeting of World Trade Organisation ministers in Doha, which is scheduled to end on Wednesday.

A breakthrough came on MOnday when a draft agreement on patent protection for medicines was reached that would give poor countries cheaper access to drugs. The agreement would allow poorer countries to override drug-company patents if faced with health crises.

A final accord will require agreement on the whole negotiating package, however, and agriculture has now emerged as the crucial issue. Developing countries have been pressing hard for better terms for their agricultural exports and for the phasing out of agricultural export subsidies.

The European Union appears to be isolated in its rejection of the latest draft accord on the grounds that it implies a commitment to the phasing-out of generous subsidies for farmers in France and Germany.