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The trade chiefs of the European Union and Japan promised on Wednesday to step up efforts to reach a global trade deal in a fresh sign that stalled five-year-old talks could soon be revived.

A signature campaign in Kedah

Trade envoys from the United States and Europe said on Monday that they had made progress in resolving differences to break an impasse on global trade negotiations, but they declined to say specifically where the differences had narrowed.

Washington and Brussels over the last few weeks - including over the weekend - came closer to a common position on agricultural market access and domestic supports that is needed to finally break the deadlock in the long-stalled Doha Development Agenda negotiations

Canada has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organisation over the use of "trade-distorting" agricultural subsidies by the US.

As 2007 starts off as a make-or-break year for the languishing Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations, the chair of the current agriculture negotiations - New Zealands Crawford Falconer - feels strongly that a deal is do-able despite many unresolved issues.

Canada has asked the World Trade Organization to start talks between it and the United States about American farm subsidies in general and its support of corn growers in particular.

The European Union (EU) hides itself behind the so-called WTO constraints to impose on the poorest countries in the world, the ACP countries (ACPs) in which Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for 94% of the population, the drastic remedy of a bilateral free trade under the pretext that 34 years of non reciprocal trade preferences did not prevent them from becoming poorer.

South Asian countries exporting agri products may not benefit much from the proposed tariff reduction in developed countries in accordance with the Doha Round of negotiations.

European commissioners are set to clash over plans for an import tax on products from energy-intensive industries aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.