The EU's trade chief says a global trade pact would inject fresh confidence to lift economic gloom. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson says a last-ditch attempt to strike a deal next week would help create more trade opportunities to keep the world economy growing. Failure would be very costly, he said, calling on fast-growing developing nations to help strike a compromise. The EU's top farm official Mariann Fischer Boel said an agreement on farm subsidy cuts needed to be made this month or talks would likely be frozen for the foreseeable future, according to a report of the Associated Press.
