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Nations at odds as WTO meeting opens in HK
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 14:11
Mandelson said that parties gathered in Hong Kong summit should try to
narrow their differences so that a treaty can be completed by year's end, saying
that developing nations depend on a successful round.
"Whilst we cannot
solve the problems of the round in Hong Kong, Hong Kong must help us to find
solutions of balance and of ambition in the endgame of the round," he said.
However, he warned against focusing too much on farm trade:
"Concentrating on agriculture, important as it is, to the exclusion of other
areas, will defeat that ambition."
With expectations so low, some
delegates have been saying another gathering of all 149 members would be needed
to hammer out "modalities," WTO jargon that refers to the specific formulas that
will form the basis for a final treaty.
"This meeting has already been
downgraded as a midterm stocktaking," said Mari Pangestu, Indonesia's trade
minister, who heads a grouping of 45 poorer countries within the WTO. "We hope
by April to reach an agreement on full modalities."
Outside the
convention center, various protest groups staged demonstrations to vent their
anger and concerns about the WTO and globalization, which many of them believe
benefit primarily the rich and powerful.
Gathering for a march at a
downtown park, farmers from South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines and
Brazil punched their fists in the air and beat drums and gongs.
Holding
banners that said "drastic market opening kills farmers" and "World Threatening
Organization," they planned to march toward the conference venue later Tuesday.
At another protest, the aid group Oxfam employed some star power in a
skit, getting help from Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal and Benin singer
Angelique Kidjo.
In the skit, activists dressed up as leaders of
developed nations, including U.S. President George Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, and symbolically dumped heaps of corn, cotton and rice on a
map of Asia and Africa.
Bernal then stepped in to shoo them away,
shouting "Out," while Kidjo chanted, "Stop dumping!"
Oxfam claims that
rich nations oversubsidize their farmers, leading them to overproduce and send
cheap exports to developing countries, crowding out local producers.
The
protests are being closely watched because demonstrations at past World Trade
Organization meetings have turned violent.
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