WTO protestors threaten to ramp up activities

Hong Kong police personnel equipped with anti-riot gear stand guard as South Korean farmers approach the venue for the World Trade Organisation conference in Hong Kong. Picture / Reuters

HONG KONG - Developing nations heightened pressure on the rich to open their long-protected markets as world trade talks floundered, while, outside the venue, trouble continues to brew.

Meanwhile, the United States and Europe continue to blame each other for the deadlock.

As World Trade Organisation (WTO) nations haggled in Hong Kong, over 1000 anti-globalisation marched peacefully under the watchful eyes of riot police a short distance away, but they promised a more aggressive demonstration later today.

"Today our actions are peaceful ... tomorrow we will show a difference phase of this struggle to smash the WTO," said Park Min-ung yesterday. He is the general secretary of the Korean Peasants League, a group representing South Korea's 4 million farmers.

Inside the convention centre, the World Bank added its voice to the indignation expressed by least-developed countries over their treatment at the meeting.

"In the three days the meetings have taken so far, the rich countries have transferred more than US$2 billion ($2.86 billion) to their farmers in various forms of support," World Bank vice president Danny Leipziger said in a statement.

"In the same period, the 300 million poorest people in Africa have earned less than US$1 billion between them."

Poor nations slammed Washington and Tokyo for baulking at a deal that would allow their exports in free of duties and quotas, saying that after years of prescribing liberalisation for others it was time they "swallowed their own medicine".

One official said US trade representative Rob Portman "went ballistic" over that statement, which was issued by Zambian Trade Minister Dipak Patel on behalf of the poorest WTO countries.

The United States also came under fire over the US$4 billion a year in subsidies enjoyed by its cotton farmers, and won little respite when it announced its willingness to offer duty-free access for cotton from impoverished West African states.

"They export cotton. Why would they import any of our cotton? What they need to do is halt the subsidies," said Francois Traore, president of the African Cotton Producers Association.

The European Union, for its part, took flak for a banana import system that Latin American growers say favours former European colonies and for its refusal to lower import tariffs for farm goods from developing countries.

Portman said he saw little chance of a breakthrough at the six-day talks, and suggested that a further meeting would be needed to resolve farm issues holding up a global trade pact.

The Hong Kong meeting was initially intended to approve a draft trade treaty that would free up business in farm and industrial goods and services, and lift millions out of poverty.

That plan was abandoned because of differences between rich and poor -- particularly the EU's stand on market access for farm goods from developing countries without further concessions from them on industrial goods and services -- though the 149 WTO member states still hope to reach a deal by the end of 2006.

Saddled with that impasse, the WTO had hoped to come away from Hong Kong with at least a duty-free and quota-free deal for the 49 poorest nations and their 700 million people.

But the United States has been reluctant to allow poor exporters free access to sensitive areas such as textiles, sugar and cotton, and Japan does not want to open up its rice market.

The EU, meanwhile, came under pressure for refusing to endorse a 2010 date for ending farm export subsidies.

The 25-nation EU says Washington must first indicate how it plans to reform its food aid system, arguing that -- because the aid is in kind rather than cash -- it amounts to as great a subsidy for US farmers as European export subsidies.

"There can be no question of the EU making another unilateral concession in any area," EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said.

This week's protests against free trade have puzzled Hong Kong, a city former US President Bill Clinton called "exhibit A in the case for global interdependence and its benefits".

"Most people in Hong Kong don't understand what they (the protesters) are doing," said K.K. Cheung, a retired construction engineer. "This is not in their culture. They like free trade."

Police used pepper spray and batons to drive back South Korean protesters on the first two days of the meeting. But there has been no repeat of the rampant violence that marred a 2003 WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, where talks almost collapsed.

- REUTERS