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BUSAN (South Korea), Nov 15 (Agencies): Pacific Rim trade ministers agreed Tuesday on a joint statement aimed at reviving stalled global trade talks, but stopped short of naming the European Union as the main stumbling block in negotiations, officials said.
Breaking a deadlock in the World Trade Organisation over subsidies in the heavily-protected farming sectors of Europe and some other developed countries has become a key focus of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Busan, South Korea.
Trade and some foreign ministers from APEC's 21 member economies held a special meeting Tuesday with WTO chief Pascal Lamy, and later agreed to the wording of a special statement on the issue that they will hand to APEC leaders for their annual summit on Friday and Saturday.
Officials here hope a strong statement by APEC's leaders, who include US President George W Bush, Japan's Junichiro Koizumi and China's Hu Jintao, will provide enough political clout to revive hopes for a WTO meeting to be held in Hong Kong next month.
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