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 The ministerial meeting in Geneva in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) long-running Doha round talks has failed to break the deadlock and several issues remain intractable, from farm subsidies to car import duties.
In a desperate attempt to save the talks WTO Director General Paul Lamy has concentrated efforts on a short list of leading trade countries out of the 35 convened at Geneva.
"On some of the key issues, positions still remain too far apart," admitted Lamy. Any final deal, if approved by negotiators, would then be proposed to all 153 WTO members who would have to ratify it individually.
After meetings of the 35 invited delegations failed to deliver progress early in the week, Lamy has concentrated his efforts on trying to get a smaller group of seven leading trade powers to find common ground.
Only the US, the EU, Japan, India, Brazil, Australia and China were involved in talks until the early hours of Thursday, which drew complaints from smaller nations.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim admitted after Thursday's meeting ended that the talks had not broken up so far, and there was interest in continuing, but time was running out.
"Tomorrow is the day in which we must know whether it's possible or not. Maybe we don't finish everything but you must have an idea whether it's possible or not" he told reporters.
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that despite some progress the talks had not moved as much as Washington hoped when it offered on Tuesday to slash its farm subsidies.
"Let's put it this way: some countries are stretching more than others and we'll see tomorrow whether everybody is prepared to do their share" said Schwab.
Speaking from Brasilia Reinhold Stephanes Brazil's agriculture minister said "this round is pointless. There is no way to achieve any results." Stephanes, who has only peripheral involvement in the haggling, said he saw "no objective reason" why a free-trade accord from the talks "would have a positive impact on world agriculture."
"It is very difficult, even impossible, to see the countries with trade protection and subsidies at the heart of their production structures giving that away in return for nothing."
Meantime French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned that Paris could sink the whole Geneva exercise.
"At the WTO, this agreement which is on the table, if it is not modified, then we will not sign it," he said referring to a draft agreement under discussion at the talks.
Although the agreement is a mere draft, Sarkozy's comments reflect deep anxiety and opposition in France to concessions that would damage its farming sector.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson shrugged off the threat from Sarkozy, reminding the French leader that the Commission held a mandate agreed by each member state to negotiate on behalf of the EU.
The Doha Round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries but has been delayed by disputes between the rich developed world and poorer developing nations over cutting subsidies and tariffs.
The US and European Union want developing countries to open up their markets for industrial goods and services and big developing countries like Brazil and India say the rich nations are not doing enough to break down the tariff walls and subsidies that distort farm trade.
Mercopress
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
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A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Developped nations subisidize only their agriculture, when emerging nations subsidizes MOST of their industries, including their agriculture, one way or the other. Such as energy : 70 % of the world population has subsidized their gasoline/diesel retail prices. and NONE in the developped nations.
Coffee is another interesting farm product : NONE is grown in developed nations, but is still heavily subsidized in....BRAZIL !!!!!
Sure.... for what Brazil subsidizes....they are right...of course....even if there is no competition from developed nations !!!!!!
Only idiots such as Brazilians have such an explanation analysis !!!
Full of UNcommon sense !