WTO ministerial outcome imbalanced against developing countries

Brief TWN Analysis of the WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference

The WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial Conference has resulted in an imbalanced outcome to the disadvantage of developing countries.

The developing countries gave in on the key market access issues of services and non-agricultural market access. In return they did not receive any significant gain in cotton, market access for LDCs, or "aid for trade", the three main components of a so-called "development package".

As for the 2013 end-date for elimination of agricultural export subsidies, the most publicized claim of benefit from Hong Kong, it was no victory. This greatest-distorting subsidy of all should have been eliminated many years ago, and no price should have been asked for it. It should have come with apologies. The date, 2013, was the furthest possible, and it was a shame that the EU would not agree to 2010 (a date acceptable to everyone else) which would have been barely "credible".

That the EU should have held back till the last minute before agreeing to this inferior alternative, so that it could extract even more from developing countries, showed