Friday, December 16 2005 12:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hong Kong: In what were the first signs of forward movement at the deadlocked world trade talks, an agreement is building on the development package for poor nations with the formulation of the draft text, which India said was 'comfortable'.

After hectic green room negotiations that stretched till this morning, the WTO members at the ongoing Ministerial here have shown convergence on the draft text, which provides adequate flexibilities to developed and developing countries in giving duty-free and quota-free access to the LDCs.

The text, which Indian negotiators have termed 'comfortable', is expected to be made final tomorrow. The text has said developed and developing countries ('those in position') will provide duty-free, quota-free on a 'lasting basis' for all products that will give 'stability, security and predictability' to the LDCs, officials said.

The text also reflected the concerns of developed nations like US and Japan who wanted flexibility regarding certain products by 'competitive' LDCs like Bangladesh in textiles.

The text is yet to be made public as the negotiators are still discussing other areas like cotton initiative for the West African countries of Benin, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso.

The agriculture text is expected to come out later in the day. On agriculture, there is forward movement on deciding the end date for export subsidies by fixing it at 2010 but the EU, which wanted movement in other areas like industrial goods and services where convergence was still eluding, is still to make up its mind.