Brazil and US target Doha breakthrough

Brazil and the US will intensify talks aimed at helping spur a breakthrough in collapsed international trade negotiations, the two nations’ top trade officials said on Saturday.

A day after receiving orders from their respective presidents to work harder on the task, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced they will hold a series of high-level meetings soon to try to solve differences over farm subsidies and market access.

While the two countries can’t make decisions on behalf of the 150-member World Trade Organization that will craft a global trade treaty, Amorim and Schwab said they will try to resolve Brazil-U.S. trade roadblocks that are shared by other nations and could prompt them to follow suit.

“We hope we can have a breakthrough we can have embraced by ourcolleagues in the WTO,” Schwab said.