WTO Doha deal 'more or less' at hand: EU

EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said here Thursday a deal to conclude the troubled WTO Doha Round of international trade negotiations was within reach.
"After six years there is more or less a deal on the table," Mandelson said at a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington.
"The Doha deal on the table is worth a great deal" and there is "a lot to lose, frankly," he added.
Mandelson predicted the 151-member World Trade Organization would conclude the lumbering Doha Round in early 2008.
The WTO's Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 and was expected to be completed by the end of 2004. However, the negotiations bogged down in disagreements between rich and poor countries.
Developing and emerging nations are seeking cuts in rich countries' subsidies and in import tariffs for agricultural products.
Developed nations want better access to industrial markets in poorer economies in return.