4th Ministerial, Doha 2001

With the World Trade Organization meeting under way, the United States is trying to convince West African governments to pressure the European Union into making a bigger offer to cut agricultural tariffs and subsidies.

As the World Trade Organization prepares for the opening of the 6th Ministerial Conference today, independent think-tank IBON says that the center of its negotiations, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA)

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

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

Around 3,000 protesters waving signs reading 'Junk the WTO' and 'Life is not for sale' marched in a carnival atmosphere in the shade of skyscrapers in one of the world's main financial centres.

The Hong Kong government is mustering all its propaganda skills to create a climate of fear as the meeting approaches, to justify cracking down on any dissent and keep the substantive issues off the front pages

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