The European Union's trade chief hailed a meeting of G33 developing nations on Wednesday as a chance for success in global trade talks after they appeared to make concessions on protective tariffs for farm goods.
But European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that time is running out for the World Trade Organisation's long-troubled Doha round of negotiations, and all groups must converge by the end of April. Indonesia hosted the meeting of developing nations, which was also attended by the EU and other key players such as Brazil.
The five-year-old Doha round was relaunched in January after a six-month suspension triggered by differences among major trading partners, especially the United States and the European Union, over agricultural subsidies.
"I feel we should be more confident of success as a result of today's meeting in Jakarta," European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told a news conference at the five-star Jakarta hotel where the talks were held. But he sounded a warning on the need to get the talks back to a multilateral forum "sooner rather than later".
"If we aim to get the sort of agreement we are aiming for in June the multilateral process that precedes that will take about two months. That means any convergence we are going to achieve amongst the few has to be put in place by the end of April. That's the sort of time scale we are looking at."
There is concern the global trade talks will fail if they are not wrapped up by June, when the US administration's fast-track negotiating authority, which allows it to make trade deals which Congress must approve or reject without making changes, expires.

PROTEST BY FARMERS:
The so-called G4 - the EU, the United States, Brazil and India - have intensified their efforts in recent weeks to strike a deal on agriculture, the main sticking point so far in the negotiations, as well as on industrial goods and services.
Agriculture dominates the economy of most poorer nations and is highly sensitive. About 50 protesters representing Indonesian farmers held a peaceful protest outside the hotel, putting up a banner saying: "WTO out of agriculture!". Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath also played down the lack of a breakthrough at the meeting.