HONG KONG (AP) – For the first time, the World Trade Organization has sought to link negotiations on agriculture with trade in industrial goods, in hopes that the move could help expedite progress in ongoing trade talks. A draft agreement that began circulating Saturday included a new paragraph urging delegates to strike a balance between agriculture and industry as they negotiate market opening policies.

The trade talks proceeded without incident despite new levels of violence outside the convention centre where mostly Asian rioters battled with Hong Kong police, leaving some 70 injured.

Trade experts interpreted the new additions as a smart move on the part of WTO chief Pascal Lamy to inject momentum into the stalled talks.

The clever wording of the text made it acceptable to both poor and rich nations, which have been at odds over whether industrial trade or agriculture should be addressed first.

“It is important to advance the development objectives of this round through enhanced market access for developing countries in both agriculture and NAMA,” the draft text said, using a WTO term that usually reflects industrial trade.

“We instruct our negotiations to ensure that the level of ambition in market access for agriculture and NAMA is commensurately high,” the text said.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said the new paragraph in the draft text was “an acknowledgment that the two areas are linked.”

“It is a positive reflection that positive development in one area would produce greater gains in the other,” he said.

The move suited the developing countries, which have long argued for elimination of trade-distorting farm subsidies and reduction in such tariffs in rich nations that would help exports from poor countries.

“It’s a good idea,” said Brazil’s External Affairs Minister Celso Amorim.

The Europeans had no complaints either, because the new text favoured the idea of pursuing ambitious cuts in industrial tariffs.

The EU’s refusal to make greater cuts in protective farm subsidies and tariffs has blocked progress in trade talks. The EU has repeatedly said it won’t make concessions unless these large developing economies like India and China further opened up their markets for manufacturing goods.

Indians too welcomed it, but the country’s biggest industry grouping – the Confederation of Indian Industry – suggested minor changes in the wording, saying the tariff cuts in agriculture and industry should be “commensurate to each other” and not “commensurately high.”