World Trade chiefs inch toward deal with hardest steps ahead

The closing session of the WTO’s 13th ministerial meeting was pushed back for a third time to allow the talks to continue

The World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva.

The World Trade Organization made some progress overnight toward agreements on measures to broaden global trade, with a final deal on agriculture subsidies, overfishing and tariff-free e-commerce hinging on major economies’ willingness to make last-minute concessions, people familiar with the talks said.

Negotiators for more than 160 countries were narrowing down differences over draft compromises to curb subsidies in fisheries, but on the agriculture sector, discussions on a roadmap for reducing public aid and lifting barriers were proving more difficult. That was partly because of India, which had its own demands in return for supporting an extension of a moratorium that keep cross-border digital commerce free of tariffs, the people said.