"This is, doubtless, an epoch-making instant. We have proved once again that we can overcome all barriers, Thailand's Supachai Panichpakdi, WTO Director General, said to a news conference.
"We have now achieved what we failed to do in Canquna, Mexico," he added.
Signed after five days of heated debates, the agreement gave a new lease of life to Doha achievements, which came into a deadlock after a 5th WTO ministerial conference proved a failure in Mexico last September.
The Doha round may finish by next year's end, what with the agreement signed, says Pascal Lamy, European Union Trade Commissioner.
The signing initially had Friday July 30 for deadline. It had to be put off for a day as the WTO negotiators representing developed and developing countries would not come to a compromise on key points. They were stubbornly refusing, into the last instant, to meet each other halfway on reducing agricultural subsidies and customs duties, support of cotton-farmers, and access to industrial commodity markets.
The agreement envisages all farm export subsidies abolished alongside export loans whose term exceeds 180 days, and reduced government support of agricultural producers. The latter point is extremely topical for Russia-a country anxious to officially join the WTO as soon as possible, though it is not doing very much to take practical part in the organization.
No countries are more apprehensive than African about cotton-growers' prospects. The WTO has promised them to get back to the issue within talks on agriculture.
The agreement is only framework-not final, and its signing presupposes further negotiations and amendments, Director General Supachai Panichpakdi and Sotaro Oshima, WTO General Council chair, emphatically reassured on several occasions.
