Just now, the heads of the delegations from India and Brazil — key players representing the Group of 20 developing countries in the negotiations — announced that they were satisfied with the deal that WTO members appear to have reached today. That deal, as reflected in a draft text being circulated throughout the Hong Kong convention center, would solve the most contentious issue of the talks by setting a final deadline for the elimination of export subsidies for farm goods: 2013. This is not the deadline of 2010, which the U.S. and Brazil had wanted but which the EU resisted. However, Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, announced that he was satisfied because the agreement called for the majority of export subsidies to be removed by the end of the first half of the implementation period — in other words, sooner rather than later.

Despite the agreement on this deadline, the draft text falls far short of the kind of progress that would have been ideal from a pro-trade standpoint to achieve here in Hong Kong. Julian Morris, executive director of the free-market International Policy Network, articulated the drawbacks of the deal:

French landowners have successfully held the world to ransom. By blocking the rapid removal of agricultural subsidies, the EU has undermined liberalisation in this important area, harming efficient agricultural exporters such as Brazil and Thailand. It has also delayed liberalisation in other key areas, including services — which would have benefited not only the wealthy countries, including France, but also many poorer countries such as India.

India’s commerce minister, Kamal Nath, was just crowing in his press conference about how little the developing countries had to “give away” in terms of reducing their trade barriers in the areas of industrial goods and services. “If anyone wants to characterize this as a giveaway, I would like them to draw my attention to any line of this text that amounts to that.”

He’s right about the text but wrong to be proud of it. The developing world has everything to gain from opening up its markets to the best and cheapest products from around the world. The U.S. and the EU could have convinced the developing countries to make such “concessions” but could not overcome the domestic political obstacles that prevented their negotiators from offering more cuts in their farm subsidies.

The heads of the delegations are meeting for one last time as I write this post, so there is still time for this deal to change or even fall apart. Nevertheless, this looks like the best we’re going to get out of Hong Kong.