World trade negotiators striving to conclude an end-year deal on abolishing global trade barriers face an array of obstacles, including high European agricultural tariffs, American farm subsidies and developing countries' refusal to cut duties on industrial goods. Now the unexpected departure of the influential Rob Portman as Chief US Trade Negotiator presents a new threat to the flagging five-year old negotiations being conducted by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization. A fear shared by many in Brussels and Geneva is that Portman's replacement by Susan Schwab signals declining US interest in the WTO negotiations.
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