No cuts in trade barriers
Only broad guidelines for the conduct of future negotiations were agreed.
WTO talks observers said the main breakthrough was the copper-fastening of the EU's commitment to eliminate agricultural export subsidies. With the US in principle accepting curbs on its food aid and export credit programmes, and the US and other rich countries making commitments to reduce their subsidisation of farmers' incomes, WTO talks have now reached the half-way stage, lagging nearly three years behind their original schedule.
No date has been set for dismantling farm subsidies, and much of the weekend agreement is vague and ambiguous.
However, the commitmnets made to cut agricultural tariffs saved the trade round from severe and perhaps fatal damage.
The chief US trade official, Robert Zoellick and EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, set aside disagreements and drove the talks forward to achieve last weekend's progress, before they both leave office within months.
Although France had sought the right to block the weekend agreement, claiming it endangered European interests, Mr Lamy and an overwhelming majority of other EU governments overruled France's objections.
Further progress will depend on many unpredictable outcomes, including who replaces Zoellick and Lamy; and where world markets would rank in a John Kerry administration, if he becomes US president.
The WTO members agreed to extend negotiations until at least December 2005, but many think that 2006 or 2007 are more realistic targets for any agreement.
Opponents of agri-subsidation said last weekend's agreement did not go far enough. "The commitment to eliminate export subsidy credits is missing any substance, as no end date is mentioned," said Friends of the Earth.
Significantly, it was arguments over agriculture, between the EU and US on one side and developing countries led by India and Brazil on the other, that derailed the talks last September.
The negotiations begun at Doha represent the first time the world has made a serious effort to lower agricultural subsidies and protection in developed countries.
