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WTO kicks open trade talks amid protests
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 21:51 Knots of heavily armed police patrolled the march route, which took
protesters past some of the most expensive real estate in Hong Kong.
The protest was mainly peaceful although police used pepper foam to repel a
small group of protesters who tried to push their way through police lines near
the conference venue.
A South Korean
worker fights with Hong Kong riot police as protesters try to march toward
the main venue for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong
December 13, 2005. Riot police used pepper spray to hold back
anti-globalisation protesters in Hong Kong on Tuesday as a meeting of
ministers from WTO nations got underway at a convention centre about 1 km
away. [Reuters] | Key to the hopes of the world's
developing nations would be a breakthrough deal to cut the massive subsidies
paid by developed nations to their farmers. But hopes of such a breakthrough
look slim.
Ahead of the formal opening of the talks, the United States, Brazil and India
had lined up to put pressure on the 25-nation European Union.
"They are distorting agriculture and they should remedy that," Indian
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said, echoing a steady stream of criticism of the
EU's stand on farm trade.
The European Union, which along with others including the United States and
Japan pays billions of dollars to farmers every year, said Monday it would not
make further offers of compromise.
And on Tuesday, France said it would wield its EU veto if any further cuts
were proposed. The task of the EU trade commissioner at the talks was to defend
the EU agriculture subsidies and tariffs, French Agriculture minister Dominique
Bussereau told the daily Aujourd'hui en France.
"That is the red line which must not be crossed," he said.
While the United States is pressing for a 55-90 percent cut in agricultural
import tariffs, the European Union has offered reductions in a range of 35 to 60
percent.
On farm support, Washington has said it is prepared to cut trade-distorting
sunsidies by 60 percent over five years, matched by an EU offer to make a 70
percent reduction in such assistance.
In the city-centre park where fair trade activists had gathered ahead of the
meeting, one of the campaigners, Pawkhuser, who like many people from Myanmar
uses one name, explained that as a refugee in Thailand earning his living by
farming, he was one of the people made vulnerable by the world trade system.
"It makes life really harsh for farmers. My family are farmers. Before,
farmers used cows to plough the land. Now markets have opened up and they have
to compete with other countries."
Beyond EU farm subsidies, another key issue will be the subsidies paid to
cotton farmers in the United States, with African delegates expected to mount
pressure for those to be cut.
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