For the past hours thirty Greenpeace activists from seven countries have blocked the entrances to the Brussels building where EU and US negotiators were due to hold secret talks for a trade deal that would give multinational corporations unprecedented power.

Thirty activists from seven countries chained themselves at the entrances of a conference centre where the meeting was due to take place. Some activists climbed the front of the building to deploy a large banner depicting a ‘dead-end’ roa...