Clock is ticking as WTO talks run out of time

SENIOR WTO negotiators warned Monday that multilateral trade talks were dangerously adrift after the fresh proposal by the EU failed to win consensus among other leading trading powers.

Negotiators face a looming deadline in Hong Kong from December 13 to 18, when the WTO wants to approve the broad outlines of a trade deal at a ministerial meeting.

With the clock ticking toward the Hong Kong meeting, senior trade officials and ministers from Australia, Brazil, the EU, India and the US are scheduled to meet in London on November 7, and at the Geneva headquarters of the WTO on November 8.