Trading nations were turning their attention to the needs of poor countries in WTO talks yesterday, a day after acknowledging they face a watered-down ministerial conference next month.
Brazil and India were expected to hammer home the message that rich fellow WTO members must keep the interests of developing countries at the core of negotiations to liberalize global commerce.
Members of the 148-nation WTO are meeting this week as they struggle to keep four-year-old negotiations on track as their Dec. 13-18 Hong Kong conference looms with crucial issues still unresolved.
The conference is meant to put together a framework deal to lower global trade barriers, a crucial stage in the WTO's Doha Round negotiations, which were launched in 2001 with the aim of boosting living standards in developing countries.
`The real test'
"The real test of this round is whether those with one dollar a day move up, or whether those with 5,000 dollars a day move up," Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.
Nath, other senior developing country trade officials and advocacy groups regularly charge that this main plank of the Doha Round is going forgotten, although their rich nation counterparts reject this.
Developing countries, which accuse rich nations of using subsidies and tariffs to skew the global farm trade against them, have been suspicious of cuts offered by the US and the EU, saying they lack real bite.
Despite plans to start drafting a text for Hong Kong by the middle of this month, negotiators are far from putting anything on paper.
As a result, WTO members meeting on Tuesday in Geneva said they would need to shift the target for Hong Kong, doing less than originally planned there and then possibly holding another conference around March.
Members originally intended to complete the round by last year, but later postponed the target to next year after repeatedly failing to overcome disputes.
Farm products
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the Geneva meeting that he will not give in to pressure from the US and other agricultural exporting nations to go further in opening up the EU's markets to farm products.
Geoff Raby, Australia's deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, yesterday told the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney that there was little hope of an agreement unless European countries cut agricultural trade barriers.
The EU won't cut agricultural tariffs to free up world trade because it lacks the political will to take on wealthy farmers, Raby said.
Raby warned of an acrimonious meeting similar to a "train smash" when WTO trade ministers meet in Hong Kong next month.
Such a confrontational summit -- involving "finger-pointing and acrimony" -- could actually spark progress by prompting a shift of political will, Raby said.
But he also warned such an approach could be counterproductive as it could take a long time to repair damaged relations.
"While still not giving up, as the days slip by we'll have to think about whether we want a train smash in Hong Kong or not," he said.
Raby also strongly criticized Switzerland, Norway and Japan, branding them "intransigent" in negotiations and attacking their defense of protectionist policies as an "obscenity."
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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