A deal to boost global trade has been approved by the World Trade Organization's 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades.
WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo shed tears during the summit's closing ceremony Saturday as he thanked host nation Indonesia and his wife, saying "for the first time in history, the WTO has finally delivered" on large scale negotiations.
Trade ministers had come to the four-day WTO meeting on the resort island of Bali with little hope that an agreement would be reached.
The talks were threatened at the eleventh hour when Cuba objected to removal of a reference to the decades-long US trade embargo that Cuba wants lifted.
India had also been an obstacle because of its vociferous objections to provisions that might endanger grain subsidies aimed at ensuring its poor get enough to eat.
courtesy:ht