(31 Jan 09 - RV) World leaders looking for hope amid recessionary gloom turned their
attention today to a long-stalled global trade deal, increasingly seen as a necessary
bulwark against the rising threat of protectionism. Trade negotiators from about 20
countries were meeting on the sidelines of the forum to discuss ways to advance the
eight-year Doha round of trade talks. Meanwhile, top CEOs and politicians at the meeting
in Davos beseeched the new U.S. administration to shun protectionism and avoid the
divisive trade policies like those that pushed the world deeper into the Great Depression.