Trade ministers from more than 25 countries on Wednesday refreshed their bid to break the deadlock in global trade talks on the sidelines of the annual meeting of World Economic Forum.

The so-called Doha Development Round, launched by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in late 2001, still could not move on after the December's WTO meeting in Hong Kong. At that meeting, the 149 members failed to agree on negotiation formulas but only agreed to a new, April 30 deadline for reaching that point.

Trade negotiators are expected to meet for bilateral talks at the five-day gathering of world political and business leaders in Davos. But no big breakthrough is expected.

The United States is seeking to have European Union countries improve their offer on lowering tariffs and other barriers in farm trade, but European officials say the U.S. is making excessive demands for reductions in agricultural tariffs that cannot be met by other countries.

Without a compromise on farm trade, it would be impossible for the industrialized countries to convince developing countries make concessions on industrial goods and service, warned analysts.

In another development, Russian Trade Minister German Gref told reporters that his country hoped to wrap up WTO entry talks with Switzerland in Davos. Russia plans to complete all bilateral talks with WTO members within two months.

Source: Xinhua