CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) - A WTO ministerial conference called to spur momentum toward a new global trade pact ended in failure, a Canadian delegate said.
"It's over," he told AFP, asking not to be named.
The end of the conference was later reported by Kenyan and Ugandan delegates.
The failure of the Cancun talks is likely to postpone implementation of the Doha Development Agenda, a roadmap for multilateral trade liberalization adopted by the World Trade Organization in 2001.
The program called for an end to the negotiating process by January 1,2005.
A Latin American delegate said the five-day conference, which was due to have concluded later Sunday, foundered over what are known as the Singapore issues.
"There was no agreement on whether we were going to launch negotiations on the four issues or not," he said.
Developing countries were adamantly opposed to proposed WTO negotiations on the four matters -- cross-border investment, competition policies, trade facilitation and government procurement.
They feared in particular that a new international investment regime would benefit multilateral corporations at the expense of their own industries.
The European Union and Japan by contrast had urged a prompt start to talks on the Singapore issues, known for the venue where they were first raised in 1996.
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