SINGAPORE, Dec. 18 -- Ministers from the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks wrapped up their four-day meeting here last Tuesday without a full agreement, thus failed to cut a deal by the end of this year as Washington had expected.

A few days earlier, the 159-member WTO reached an agreement in the Doha round of its multilateral trade negotiations at its ninth ministerial meeting in Bali, Indonesia. The breakthrough came, however, after many missed deadlines in more than a decade of negotiations.

The two meetings, though with different agenda and outcome, underlined nevertheless the complexity and difficulties for global trade rule setting.

The Bali accord served to offer some confidence to the world trade body, especially at a time when many countries are seeking regional trade agreements outside the WTO framework such as the TPP and Transattlantic Trade and Investment Partnership(TTIP).