Ministers plan catch-up in Mexico talks

Ministers from 146 countries gather in the Mexican resort of Cancún today for five days of talks aimed at restoring momentum to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its effort to break down barriers to global trade.

The meeting comes halfway through a round of trade negotiations initiated in 2001 in the Qatari capital of Doha which are due to end on January 1st, 2005.

The talks are well behind schedule and this week's meeting must make progress on key issues if the round is to have any chance of being completed on time.

Many observers predict that failure at Cancún could call into question the future of the WTO itself and of the multilateral system of rules governing trade.

The Mexican authorities have deployed more than 20,000 police and soldiers to protect the meeting and to ensure that it is not disrupted by an estimated 50,000 protesters who are expected to arrive in Cancún by Saturday.

The security effort, which involves navy and air force units as well as the army, will receive its first test today when a group of Mexican peasants demonstrates against the impact of free trade on their livelihoods.

The most difficult issue facing the ministers is the future of agricultural subsidies and tariff barriers that prevent farmers from poor countries gaining access to markets in the developed world.

The European Union and the United States have agreed to cut subsidies linked to production and to make big reductions in export subsidies which poor countries claim are flooding their markets with subsidised food from the rich countries. But a group of 20 developing countries, led by Brazil and India, complains that the moves are not enough and is demanding more action to cut tariffs, particularly on such products as sugar, rice and cotton.

Progress on other issues could depend on the meeting's success in finding agreement on agriculture, although the ministers have already agreed an important deal that will allow poor countries to manufacture and import cheap versions of patented drugs for fighting such illnesses as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria which kill millions of people in the developing world every year.

The EU wants to introduce rules to protect foreign investment in developing countries and to liberalise trade in services such as banking.

The Government will be represented at the talks by three ministers: the Minister for Agricultutre, Mr Walsh; the Minister of State for Trade, Mr Michael Ahern; and the Minister of State for Development and Human Rights, Mr Tom Kitt.