THE major economic powers at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Singapore appeared to edge close to agreement last night on a pact to liberalise trade in information technology by the year 2000. But they have still to overcome opposition to any accord from a number of Asian countries.
The issue is proving deeply divisive in the first ministerial meeting of the 128-member WTO, which is already riven by disagreement between advanced and developing countries over linking trade and labour standards.
"We're hopeful of getting agreement here in Singapore" said WTO spokesman Mr Keith Rockwell after EU Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan and US acting Trade Representative Ms Charlene Barshcfsky cancelled separate press conferences yesterday to continue conferring late into the evening on the proposed information technology agreement, known as ITA, for the market estimated to be worth $600 billion (£362 billion) a year.
He conceded, however, that other WTO members were refusing to have anything to do with the ITA discussions. Several Asian nations have voiced reservations, and Malaysia leads a group which maintains the goal of free trade in information technology by the turn of the century is too ambitious.
"We did not come here to discuss the ITA," Malaysian Trade and Industry Minister Mr Rafidah Aziz told reporters. "All negotiations should be done in Geneva, where the WTO has its headquarters.
After a lunch meeting of the Big-Power bloc - the EU, the US Canada and Japan - Sir Leon said: "We're making a lot of progress and we hope to make further progress."
Japan's Foreign Minister, Yukihiko Ikeda, told delegates he ardently hoped that they would have agreement on ITA "as the most significant achievement of this ministerial conference in the area of trade liberalisation".
WTO director general Mr Renato Ruggiero told the conference that information, know-how and ideas were the new forces driving the global economy forward. He said that by "liberalising information technology, we can educate our people on a scale unimaginable 10 or 20 years age, empowering them to compete in the global economy. . . we can help put a telephone in every village.
The developed nations issued strong signals during the day that they were aiming for agreement as quickly as possible so they could lean on Asian trading partners to sign on to the agreement by the end of the meeting on Friday.
About 40 countries yesterday negotiated separately to try to finalise a deal on a telecommunication liberalisation accord, a sector heavily protected in many emerging economies.
Negotiators at WTO headquarters in Geneva are facing a deadline to finalise a deal among some 50 countries by mid-February after failing in an earlier bid last April when the United States pulled out of the talks.
Meanwhile, 16 of the 20 paragraphs of a final declaration to be issued on Friday and meant to direct the WTO towards zero tariffs early in the new century have already been agreed. But a major behind-the-scenes battle is underway over what is expected to be the final paragraph to be agreed - that on labour standards.
Minister after minister from developing countries came out strongly against a proposal backed by the US and France to put workers rights on the global trade agenda. While defending their own records on the rights of workers, they argued it would deprive the developing world of its biggest natural advantage - cheap and plentiful labour.
Britain, Germany and Australia agreed and argued that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was the appropriate body to handle the issue.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand - one of the countries accused of exploiting under-age labour - said the WTO was not the competent forum to discuss the issue, but Mr Amnuay Viravan predicted a compromise would be reached in the next 48 hours.
Labour is an emotive issue with many trade unions in the West, who say jobs have been lost in developed countries because of the exploitation of child labour in developing economies.