Progress Made on WTO Trade Deal

World Trade Organization members are inching closer to a preliminary free trade agreement ahead of the body's December ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, the territory's trade chief said, according to a news report Monday.

'Some progress has been made in the talks and I am optimistic on the outcome,' John Tsang was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.

WTO talks on slashing subsidies, tariffs and other global trade barriers collapsed in Mexico in 2003 amid disagreements over investment rules between rich and poor nations and a dispute over agriculture reforms.

Trade negotiators want to get the talks back on track at the WTO meeting in Hong Kong scheduled for Dec. 13-18 and are aiming for an agreement by 2006.

Tsang said the draft agreement will set out the parameters for agriculture subsidy cuts, tariff cuts for non-farm products, the level of access to service industries, antidumping rules and how to help poor countries develop, the Post reported.

Tsang's comments came after he attended a meeting of Asian trade ministers in Chiba, Japan over the weekend. Representatives from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China and Indonesia discussed lowering tariffs for nonagricultural products in both developed and developing nations.

Tsang was also quoted as saying Hong Kong and China will pursue different agendas at December's WTO meeting because their economies are different, with China's mainly agricultural and industrial while Hong Kong is service-oriented.

Former British colony Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 but it maintains separate political and economic systems from the mainland. They have separate membership in the WTO.

'They (China) are big enough to back themselves. We will work our agenda and they will work on theirs,' he said.