No Breakthroughs Seen As WTO Ministerial Nears Finish.

The article reports that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha round talks in Hong Kong headed into the weekend with little prospect for any dramatic breakthroughs that would lead to a liberalization of world trade. But WTO Director General Pascal Lamy was expected by Saturday to try to write a text that would bridge the differences among the different factions. U.S. officials complained that the European Union and others had declined to negotiate on tariff reductions and the most likely agricultural agreement is to restrict programs known as export competition, although even that is problematic.