It was a traumatic week for the people in Hong Kong last week when thousands of citizen groups held peaceful demonstrations and hundreds of activists and farmers staged protests on the streets as the World Trade Organisation held its ministerial conference.
The WTO obviously attracts lots of passion. But the big decisions were not taken at Hong Kong and the talks will resume in Geneva in January.
The battle will resume in January as the WTO reconvenes after the Christmas break.
And another ministerial meeting may be needed within three or four months into the new year.
The European Union (EU), the stumbling block to the negotiations to expedite export subsidies' elimination, should start reducing a substantial portion of these subsidies before the 2013 deadline, International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said Sunday.
Earlier, on 9 December 2005, Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, was the recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics stated that :
"In the end, developed countries got what they wanted, and developing countries were told to be patient: Eventually, the developed countries would fulfill their part of the deal. Even as the rich countries urged developing countries to make quick adjustments, they claimed that they needed a decade to make the transition to a quota-free textile regime. In truth, they were just buying time; they did nothing for a decade, and when the quotas finally ended last January, they pleaded that they were still not prepared, and thus negotiated a three-year extension with China. "
Professor Joseph E. Stinglitz coincidentally same view point with me here. Read what he has wrote.
Link : KickAas
Updated: Six day in Hong Kong: Poor countries get raw deal one again
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