CANCUN, Mexico, 14 September 2003 — WTO negotiators made tentative headway yesterday toward a new deal on world trade at a conference here that was the target of an estimated 2,000 anti-capitalist protesters.

Chanting “WTO murders,” demonstrators headed toward a spot called Kilometer Zero, where huge barriers, riot police and water cannons were deployed to keep them 10 kilometers (six miles) away from the fortress-like structure where delegates from 146 countries were trying to overcome a two-year deadlock in trade liberalization talks.

Farmers, indigenous people, students and other anti-capitalist protesters from around the world had earlier converged at various points in the city.

Dozens of young anarchists, known as the Black Bloc, packed rocks and other projectiles in huge garbage cans they made preparations for the march.

A few kilometers (miles) away, several hundred people put the finishing touches on their banners denouncing the globalization they say further impoverishes farmers eking out a living in developing countries.

Behind the metal barricades, World Trade Organization ministers stared at an end-of-Sunday deadline for overcoming stark differences, especially on proposed changes to farm trade, in pursuit of consensus.

The Cancun meeting was to reopen the deadlocked Doha Development round of free trade talks, launched in 2001.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said late Friday that some forward movement had become evident on agricultural subsidies, easily the most complex issue facing delegates here.

“Agriculture moved well,” Rockwell told reporters at a news conference late Friday, although he declined to be more specific.

But Peter Allgeier, the US deputy trade representative, offered a more modest assessment. “We feel that the discussions on agriculture have been constructive in the sense that they have really focused on the substance under negotiation,” he said.

“There has been a good clarification of countries’ positions, a better understanding of countries’ priorities. “There certainly haven’t been any deals struck or anything like that, at least not that we are part of.”

While ministers generally agree they want to speed the flow of goods and services around the world, they hold deeply divergent views on how this should be achieved. Poor countries facing stiff tariff barriers in industrialized nations and unable to compete effectively with heavily subsidized exports from the West are clamoring for concessions from their richer partners.

Wealthy nations, notably the United States and members of the European Union, say they agree that developing countries deserve wider access to global markets but demand reciprocal measures.

India’s Finance Minister Jaswant Singh reportedly said yesterday that New Delhi would not reduce subsidies earmarked for the farming sector as food security and welfare were important to the country.

“For India, agriculture is not a mere economic activity but a way of life. Our culture is linked to agriculture. We want subsidies to come down but at the same time ensuring food security is important,” Singh was quoted as saying on the state-run Doordarshan television channel by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

“If someone asks us to stop giving subsidies to agriculture, we will not listen to him,” Singh said.

Ministers were awaiting yesterday the release of a new draft text drawn up by Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez wrapping up positions on all issues.

While there are other sticking points confronting the 4,600 delegates here, failure find consensus on agriculture would likely scuttle the talks.

A group of about 20 developing countries, led by Brazil, India and China, and big farm exporters of the Cairns Group such as Australia and Argentina want reductions in the more than $300 billion (275 billion euros) spent a year by industrialized countries on farm subsidies.

The European Union and the United States agreed in principle that subsidies should be reduced — or eliminated — but are at odds over the pace and scope of the cuts.