Chinese investors are trying to follow the rules when spending money abroad, the head of one of China's biggest private equity firms says, as global leaders increasingly look to the country to prop up the world economy.

GLOBAL commerce will grow 6.5% this year after expanding a record 14.5% in 2010 as economies from China to Brazil recover from the worst recession in six decades, the World Trade Organisation said.

POLITICIANS from around the world say they doubt a meaningful global trade agreement will be struck this year and fear the rapid growth of self-serving side deals could kill it off completely.

Global trade chiefs meeting in Switzerland spoke today of their optimism that a new deal to liberalise international commerce can be finalised, but offered little in the way of concrete progress to indicate they can reach agreement before the end of the year.

THERE is about a 60-40 chance of a world trade deal being agreed next year, a top European Union official has predicted.

A TWO-DAY meeting of 35 trade ministers of the WTO-member countries began in New Delhi yesterday amid tight security.

THE world trade talks, which collapsed last year to the relief of the Irish farm and agri-food sectors, are unlikely to resume for some months and a conclusion to the negotiations that would cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods is not expected this year.

WHILE global leaders struggled in London to agree on policies that would let each do their own thing, Bill Clinton had a simple message for the alternative globalisation event in Brussels: “Just do it.”

Global leaders had a simple message for the world today: Keep trading.

Global leaders had a simple message for the world today: Keep trading.

A DECISION to abandon attempts to restart the world trade talks in Geneva will be welcomed in Ireland.

A MEETING of world trade ministers in Geneva to agree an outline deal in global trade talks has been postponed.

SPECULATION is growing in Geneva that another bid is to be made before the end of the year to reach a global trade deal.

SPECULATION is growing in Geneva that another bid is to be made before the end of the year to reach a global trade deal.

THE new European Trade Commissioner Baroness Ashton has been warned by Mairead McGuinness, MEP, not to take over the flawed policies of her predecessor, Peter Mandelson.

Europe's new Trade Commissioner, Cathy Ashton, arrived in Geneva tonight for talks with the head of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy.

PROSPECTS for a deal at the world trade talks suffered a setback yesterday when France warned that the current proposals were not acceptable.

The European Union will not be the “sole banker” of a world trade deal, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned this afternoon.

WORLD Trade Organisation mediators circulated new negotiating texts on Thursday that will serve as the blueprint for an outline deal in the WTO’s long-running Doha round, trade officials said.

WHEN the French, voting in large numbers, rejected the European constitution (the Lisbon Treaty in readable form), the then president of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, along with José Manuel Barroso, called for the ratification process to continue.

THE current round of world trade talks in Geneva, which pose a major threat to farming and agri business in Ireland, look set for an end game.

FARMERS have called on the Government to veto an emerging World Trade Organisation deal on the basis it would wipe out Irish agriculture while business leaders have also decried the latest compromises on industrial goods.

WORLD Trade Organisation director general Pascal Lamy said this week “it is still doable” for trade ministers to outline of an agreement in world trade talks this month.

THE prospects of an outline for a new global trade deal being agreed next month increased in the past week, according to reports from Geneva, where the negotiations are taking place.

THE EU, the US, India and Brazil will meet for five days in Germany from Tuesday, in a last-gasp attempt at a breakthrough in World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks launched more than five years ago.

EUROPEAN farmers will not be offered up as a sacrifice to get the right overall result in the world trade talks.

Negotiations to conclude the Doha round of global trade talks are again under way, and a breakthrough may be made in the coming months, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy said in the Philippines today.

A meeting of the world’s top commercial powers yielded only a vague pledge of commitment to global trade liberalisation efforts today – a disappointment after business and political leaders called for progress in the World Trade Organisation talks.

EU and Japanese trade officials said today that they were ready to step up their efforts in coming weeks to strike a world trade deal.

Trade ministers tried to keep the Pacific Rim summit focused on its economic agenda today as sideline discussions on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme threatened to steal the show in Vietnam.

Europe’s Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson today challenged the US to match EU farm subsidy cuts and get stalled world trade talks back on track.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson criticised Australia today for taking the US side in stalled World Trade Organisation talks on global trade liberalisation.

World Trade Organisation members have shelved more than five years of free trade talks as differences over farm aid proved unbridgeable.

Global commerce talks at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva collapsed today as top powers failed to agree on steps towards liberalising trade in farm and manufactured goods.

Global commerce talks at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva appeared on the brink of collapse today as top powers stumbled in attempts to agree on steps towards liberalising trade in farm and manufactured goods.

Renewed efforts to revive global commerce talks appeared in trouble today as top trading powers said they had failed so far to make progress on thorny issues such as US and European farm support.

THE reform of the European Union sugar regime led to an exchange between World Trade Organisation (WTO) director general Pascal Lamy and former Food Minister Ned O’Keeffe at an OECD globalisation forum in Paris.

EUROPEAN UNION Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has assured farm and co-op leaders that Brussels will make no concessions in the world trade talks, beyond the mandate it has been given by member states.

FARMING futures will be on the line in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 26, as trade ministers make a last-ditch attempt to cut tariffs and subsidies for farm and industrial goods.

Irish trade will benefit from the World Trade Organisation deal, a Government minister said today.

AID agencies, environmentalists and trade unions gave a damning thumbs down last night to a limited agreement reached at the conclusion of world trade talks in Hong Kong.

Anti-globalisation protesters battled with riot police today and tried to storm a convention centre in Hong Kong where World Trade Organisation negotiators raced against the clock to reach a compromise they hoped would rescue the talks from being a flop.

A draft agreement under discussion by World Trade Organisation trade negotiators in Hong Kong today suggested eliminating all farm export subsidies by 2010.