news bulletin – answers

Anger after WTO talks collapse

gap-filler

1. A deal to settle a historic row over the banana trade between the EU and Latin America is now off.
2. "I think it’s no use beating around the bush this meeting has collapsed."
3. European officials say a deal reached on Sunday to cut tariffs on Latin American bananas entering the EU by about a third is now defunct.
4. Ecuador’s minister of agriculture, Walter Pervera, demanded the EU stick to Sunday’s agreement.
5. "Yes, it has taken us by surprise as we thought that we had managed something that has been fifteen or sixteen years in the making.
6. "We hoped that the continuation of these conversations had made our position better."
7. Meanwhile, recriminations fly across Asia over who is responsible for the failure of the marathon nine-day talks aimed at liberalising global trade.
8. China blames western nations, saying they are unwilling to scrap huge subsidies they pay their farmers.