Ministers from 149 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) gathered in Hong Kong on Tuesday
afternoon to open the Sixth Ministerial Conference in a new bid to
push forward the stalled Doha Round trade talks.
Addressing the opening session, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Donald Tsang, said: "We have
a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance the existing
international trading environment.
"It would become a key staging post to the successful conclusion
of the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development
Agenda." Tsang also promised that Hong Kong was determined to make
the meeting a success.?
John Tsang, HKSAR trade chief and chairman of the Hong Kong
meeting, said Hong Kong, as host of the long-awaited meeting, would
serve as "a launching pad" for the final stage of negotiations and
early success of the Doha Round.
He admitted that agriculture, notably reduction and elimination
of farm subsidies, presented a challenge to the Doha
Round.??
However, he said, WTO "members agreed to take up this challenge
and pressed on vigorously with the negotiations because we
recognized the quickening pace of global
interdependence."??
This Hong Kong conference, attended by 5,800 delegates from 149
WTO members and 2,100 representatives from non-governmental
organizations, will focus on the topics of the Doha Round, which
aims to reduce farm subsidies and tariffs, liberalize service trade
and provide economic aid to developing countries.??
Launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, the Doha Round was caught in a
deadlock over farm subsidies, which pitted rich against poor
countries.?
It was put back on track following a meeting in July 2004, at
which WTO members agreed to phase out farm
subsidies.??
In his speech, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy advised all the
delegates to be "more open-minded and bolder" in their negotiations
so as to achieve satisfactory results.??
"A popular Chinese proverb goes 'If you do not go into the cave
of the tiger, how will you get its cub?'" Lamy said. "In other
words: nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Lamy warned that repeating the long-known positions, using
negotiators' language, refusing to understand the reasons of
counterparts and avoiding any risks including political risks will
only "get us nowhere."
He encouraged all WTO members to be open-minded, bold and
courageous at the six-day conference to deal with the difficult and
complex negotiations.
Echoing Lamy's warning, Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general
of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
said the lack of major gains in Hong Kong would be a severe
disappointment for poor people throughout the
world.??
"Development -- real gains in real peoples' lives -- remains the
primary benchmark for success of the Doha Round," he said on behalf
of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
He urged the European Union and G8 countries to set a clear,
unambiguous date for ending trade-distorting subsidies and allowing
access to their markets, especially in agriculture.
Amina Mohamed, chairwoman of the WTO General Council, urged WTO
members to demonstrate resolve to push forward the Doha Round
talks.
At the same time, more than 5,000 protesters from South Korea,
Japan, India, the Philippines and some African and European
countries staged a demonstration outside the Convention and
Exhibition Center, the conference venue.
Some of them clashed with police as they tried to ram through a
police roadblock.
This is the second anti-WTO demonstration this week, after
thousands of anti-globalization and anti-WTO demonstrators took to
the streets on Sunday.
(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2005)
