Paris Negotiations

Trade negotiators wanted to make tangible progress before the December 2005 WTO meeting in Hong Kong and held a session of negotiations in Paris in May 2005. Paris talks were hanging over a few issues: France protested moves to cut subsidies to farmers, while the US, Australia, the EU, Brazil, and India failed to agree on issues relating to chicken, beef, and rice. Most of the sticking points were small technical issues, making trade negotiators fear that agreement on large politically risky issues will be substantially harder.