Highly Flawed Process in Services Talks Continues in Hong Kong Dear Mr. Chairman, It is regrettable that the Director-General Pascal Lamy failed to adequately redress the critiques we raised in the run-up to the Hong...
Read More
koreansclash.jpg
In the most intense confrontation yet between demonstrators and the police since the start of the ministerial, around 5,000 protesters from across the world came within just 200 meters off the Hong Kong Convention Center where the World Trade Organization negotiations are being held.
Demonstrators managed to breach several levels of barricades by outrunning the police and catching them unawares, confused, and in disarray. Several small groups first broke off from the main protesters’ block, managed to break into rows of police, paving the way for the rest of the demonstrators to proceed, forcing the police to regroup.
aileens.jpg
The draft Ministerial text is a slap in the face for developing countries, reinforcing once again that the WTO is profoundly anti-development and an institution well beyond repair.
There is nothing in this text that is of benefit to developing countries. While the delegations inside the Convention Centre haggled over punctuation, thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and local Hong Kong protesters marched to the Centre insisting their voices be heard.
Read More
asean11.jpg
En el bosquejo ministerial que fue llevado de Ginebra a Hong-Kong, las secciones sobre servicios (el párrafo 19-21 en el texto principal y el anexo C) eran las más polémicas. Los corchetes en el anexo C, que demostró que no era...
Read More2005-12-16Toda la retórica en esta reunión ministerial sobre el desarrollo es un saco de promesas vacías. El proyecto del texto sobre agricultura lanzado esta noche tiene un lenguaje que da a los Estados Unidos y a la Unión...
Read MoreDay 4 of the Ministerial had many ups, downs and roundabouts. It ended with the release of a text on agriculture which maintains dumping, a green room on services from which the results are yet to be seen (article by Benny...
Read More
lamy2.jpg
However, the only magic that the powerful countries are using is illusional language, such as “aid for trade” and “duty-free / quota-free market access” for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to claim that there is development in the Doha Round.
Read More
Small Farmers Struggling for Their Last StanceHong Kong People Standing Together in Hunger StrikeOver the last few days, we, a group of Hong Kong people, believe that many locals have been inspired and touched by people coming...
Read MoreWe the undersigned civil society organizations are concerned that the positions taken by major developed countries at the Hong Kong Ministerial conference are undermining development interests. We are outraged by how the...
Read More[Français] By Aileen KwaPara 5 – “there has been some convergence concerning the reductions in Final Bound Total AMS, the overall cut in trade distorting domestic support and in both product-specific and non product-specific de...
Read More
annexc.jpg
By Benny Kuruvilla
In the Ministerial draft that was taken from Geneva to Hong Kong the sections on services (Paragraph 19-21 in the main text and Annex C) were the most controversial. The brackets on Annex C, which showed that it was not a consensus document, partly reflected this.
Knowing that services could stymie a successful outcome at Hong Kong, it was tactically discussed before the Ministerial began in a meeting of the Core Group on services (a non inclusive group which comprises 15 countries and is co-chaired by the US and India) on the evening of 12 December 2005. It was not on the agenda for the first 2 days of the Ministerial. The idea of the main demandeurs was to front load the ministerial with other issues such as agriculture, NAMA and development and introduce Annex C towards the end thereby ensuring that dissenting voices would be muted.
Español
All the hype at this Ministerial about development is a bag of empty promises. The draft agriculture text released tonight has language in it that will give the US and EU guarantees that they can continue their dumping in developing countries with results that will be disastrous for farmers in the developing world.
Paragraph 5 of the text states that “There has been some convergence concerning the reductions in Final Bound Total AMS, the overall cut in trade distorting domestic support and in both product-specific and non product-specific de minimis limits”.
Japanese participants against WTO in Hong Kong Oppose "Support Package for Developing Countries"provided by the Japanese government at the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference. The Japanese Foreign Minister, Taro Aso...
Read MoreDay three saw more substantive discussions take place than yesterday on the issues of NAMA, services and agriculture. In services, five countries sent a letter to the Chair, saying there is no consensus on Annex C. In...
Read More
