But the cuts in industrial tariffs were not matched by market access for Australia's farmers.
Efforts to agree a way of measuring cuts to industrial tariffs also stalled, and were put off to Cancun.
Talks on reducing industrial tariffs, too, have a long way to go.
If a compromise is reached, the third dimension of the chessboard includes Brazil, which is nervous about dropping industrial tariffs, and India, which has deep trepidation about opening its farm sector.
ECONOMIST: It is make-or-break time this spring for global trade talks
It would be best to broaden the new round to areas such as industrial tariffs, investment and competition policy, to allow more scope for the trade-offs on which a final deal depends.
Technically, his role will be to oversee a new round of world trade negotiations, which is due to start in Seattle in November: it will cover, among other areas, agriculture, services, industrial tariffs and, probably, electronic commerce.
All tariffs on industrial goods will be eliminated within 10 years, and most of the remaining tariffs on agricultural goods will be eliminated over the next 15 years.
Countries have slashed their tariffs on industrial goods in successive rounds of trade talks.
Since then, trade liberalisation has reduced tariffs on industrial products dramatically, spurring export growth and helping countries like Japan and Korea become industrial giants.
Developed countries' tariffs on industrial goods, at least, are already low.
G20 was furious at the discrepancy between the Europeans' timidity on cutting farm tariffs and the ambition of their demands for reductions in developing countries' tariffs on industrial goods.
The new ruling, passed June 3, gives Brazilian government owned power company Eletrobras (EBR), along with national and international equipment partners, the ability to buy capital goods, building materials, infrastructure materials and nuclear industry specific technologies for use in energy generation without having to pay the IPI, or industrial production tax, nor tariffs on imported goods.
In the case of Colombia, 80% of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products will immediately be duty free, with the remaining tariffs phased out over the next decade.
Industrial state companies will no longer be able to hide behind high tariffs and other barriers.
Beginning October 31st, Panama will eliminate tariffs on more than 86 percent of U.S. industrial and consumer goods.
The breakthrough is often dated to 1991, when an embattled government cut tariffs on inputs, eased entry to foreign investors and largely dismantled industrial licensing.
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