Archive - 2005

Now that the Ministerial has arrived, we will endeavor to send out a daily report from Hong Kong

People from all over the world united by one common purpose, gathered on the football pitches of Victoria Park in Hong Kong to herald the opening of the Peoples Action Week (PAW) in protest of the official opening of the 6th WTO Ministerial.

The problem is not the inability to resolve differences among the WTO country members, but the model of development that the WTO promotes.

US Trade Representative Rob Portman told reporters he is optimistic that members can make 'incremental' progress on some substantial issues as well as arrive at a plan for least developed countries

Facilitator for agriculture at this week’s WTO’s sixth ministerial conference in Hong Kong, Mukhisa Kituyi, said in Geneva on Saturday he intends to conduct discussions in all three pillars of Doha Development Agenda farm negotiations adding that he wants to explore with trade ministers where they can arrive at figures to be plugged into the liberalization formulas

Wal-Mart Hopes WTO Will Help It Open a Door Big retailers will seek to alter a services pact. Local officials fear a loss of power to limit firms.

The charity Christian Aid has cited leaked documents to say that the European Union (EU) will push developing nations to privatise services such as water, healthcare and banking at the trade ministers meeting in Hong Kong this week.

The Hong Kong development package is a guise for further impoverishment of developing economies, those hardest hit by liberalization.

Several thousand anti-globalisation protesters have marched through Hong Kong, in the first of several demonstrations planned against this week's World Trade Organisation talks.