Although the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shelved plans for a draft free trade deal at the six-day conference, US Trade Representative Rob Portman made clear that he had ?come to work? and was looking for progress in contentious areas of the negotiations.

With continuing deep differences between developed and developing countries ? particularly over agriculture ? forcing the WTO to drop the bar for the Hong Kong meeting, measures for poor states, including duty-free access, have become a litmus test for success at the WTO?s 6th ministerial conference. ?I think it would earth these negotiations in the real world,? European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told reporters. ?It would give them (the talks) a human face.?

But while the United States and Brazil, two other leading participants in the 149-state conference echoed Mandelson?s call, they kept up pressure on the EU over farm reform. The EU?s refusal to offer more than an average 39 percent cut in taruiff barriers has been blamed by many farm goods exporters, most notably Brazil and the United States, for a stalemate in agricultural talks, the lynchpin of the WTO?s Doha trade round.

<B>Avoid the violence</B>

?Unless the European Union is able to improve substantially its offer on agricultural goods there will not be a successful (trade) round,? Brazil?s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told a news conference. Both he and Portman said they hoped for progress on this and other knotty issues at the meeting, which is being attended by some 400 ministers.

Around 10,000 anti-globalisation protesters, including South Korean farmers angry at the prospect of more rice imports into their long-protected market, are converging on Hong Kong.

?We are determined to voice out our resistance in a peaceful and legal way, but also in a very affirmative and strong way,? Yang Kyeong Kyoo of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions told a news conference. Hong Kong has blacklisted some people, particularly from South Korean farmer groups with a reputation for violent protest, in the hope that the territory will be able to avoid the violence that marked the last WTO conference in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003. Cancun broke up in bitter disarray. Ministers and diplomats warn a repeat could kill off the round ? launched in late 2001 ? and its promise of more economic growth and fewer poor.

Mandelson said the conference should set a new deadline for early 2006 for a draft deal, covering all areas of the Doha round from farm and industrial goods to services and rule changes. A final deal must be concluded by end-2006 or early 2007. The conference should also ease some of the deadlocks in the talks, he added. ?That means the three ?Ds? ? development, deadlocks, deadlines.? However, the EU would not sweeten its farm offer ? even if it had any room for manoeuvre ? until other mainly developing countries had shown more readiness to open up their industrial goods and services markets, Mandelson said.

But for Brazil and other leading developing countries, agriculture remains the ?motor? of the round and until they can be sure that they will be able to sell more to the EU, they will not give more access to their services and industrial markets. The United States, while agreeing with the EU that developing countries must make concessions, said agriculture remained key. ?We cannot avoid the hard choices needed to reach an agreement on agriculture which from the start has been at the heart of the Doha Round,? Portman said.

<B>Richard WADDINGTON</B>