[originaltext] World Trade Organization members approved a plan on Sunday to

World Trade Organization members approved a plan on Sunday to end export subsidies on farm products and cut import duties across the world, a key step toward a comprehensive global accord that has been discussed since 2001, trade officials said.
   The deal was approved by a consensus of the 147-nation body shortly after midnight, opening the way for full negotiations to start in September.
   The approval followed a breakthrough earlier Saturday when some 20 key countries approved a document setting out the framework for a legally binding treaty, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.
   The document commits nations to lowering import duties and reducing government support in the three major areas of international trade—industrial goods, agriculture and service industries such as telecommunications and banking.
   The deal will set back in motion the long-stalled "round" of trade liberalization treaty talks launched by WTO members in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, but delayed by the collapse of the body’s ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last year.
   In agriculture, the document agrees to eliminate export subsidies and other forms of government support for exports, while making big cuts to other subsidies. It includes a "down payment" that would see an immediate 20 percent cut in the maximum permitted payments by rich nations.
   The highest agricultural import tariffs will face the biggest cuts, although no figures have yet been agreed. Nations will have the right to keep higher tariffs on some of the products they consider most important.
   The biggest sticking point apparently was how to handle those farm products on which a group of 10 countries, including Japan and Switzerland, want to maintain higher import tariffs to protect domestic producers.