Ministers appeared close to sealing the world's biggest trade reform for two decades early on Saturday after India, the most vocal holdout, endorsed a draft text presented by the head of the World Trade Organization, Reuters reported. The deal, thrashed out at talks on the Indonesian island of Bali, would lower trade barriers and speed up the passage of goods through customs. Analysts estimate that over time it could boost the world economy by hundreds of billions of dollars and create more than 20 million jobs, mostly in developing countries. Failure would have represented a body blow to the 159-nation WTO, formed in 1995 and still without a major trade deal to its credit after many years of negotiating fiascos. -- SPA 20:53 LOCAL TIME 17:53 GMT تغريد
