'Say no to WTO' was the consensus reached by Asian grassroots activists who gathered this morning at Victoria Park in Hong Kong to share their experiences of unfair trade policies imposed by rich nations
US and EU want sectoral /plurilateral negotiations in Services to be launched after the Hong Kong Ministerial. The language in the draft text that will facilitate such negotiations are para. 21 and Annex C
The United States will have to open its market to more foreign temporary workers as part of any new world trade deal, despite strong opposition in the US Congress, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Wednesday.
Benin's ambassador to the WTO Samuel Amehou and representatives of West African cotton producers today (Dec. 14) warned that their countries will refuse to support any agreement struck in Hong Kong if developed countries do not agree to cut their cotton subsidies.
World trade ministers launched a fresh bid to salvage free trade negotiations amid little hope for major headway, as thousands of protesters marched in the streets to denounce the WTO as an enemy of the poor.
One day into the ministerial meeting, the European Union remained at odds with the United States, Canada and Japan over the scope and implementation of an initiative to provide duty-free quota-free access to least developed countries (LDCs).
The United States warned trading partners on Wednesday that the world would slip back into protectionism without progress in global talks to reform world commerce, stunting economic growth and hitting the poor.
The United States and the European Union sparred on Wednesday over farm subsidies, food aid and measures to help the world's poorest countries, souring world trade talks that were already in trouble.
Thousands of anti-globalization activists marched through Hong Kong watched by a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of violence that has rocked previous WTO meetings.
Martin Khor and Hira Jhamtani, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
The Group of 20 developing countries held a Ministerial meeting Tuesday morning and issued a G20 Ministerial Declaration reaffirming its position that agriculture is the central issue of the Doha Round .
Though there are problems in all the critical areas of agriculture, viz., market access, domestic subsidy and export subsidy, the key questions are in the domestic subsidy of the developed countries
