Nations at odds as WTO meeting opens in HK
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-13 14:11

Mandelson said that parties gathered in Hong Kong summit should try to narrow their differences so that a treaty can be completed by year's end, saying that developing nations depend on a successful round.

"Whilst we cannot solve the problems of the round in Hong Kong, Hong Kong must help us to find solutions of balance and of ambition in the endgame of the round," he said.

However, he warned against focusing too much on farm trade: "Concentrating on agriculture, important as it is, to the exclusion of other areas, will defeat that ambition."

With expectations so low, some delegates have been saying another gathering of all 149 members would be needed to hammer out "modalities," WTO jargon that refers to the specific formulas that will form the basis for a final treaty.

"This meeting has already been downgraded as a midterm stocktaking," said Mari Pangestu, Indonesia's trade minister, who heads a grouping of 45 poorer countries within the WTO. "We hope by April to reach an agreement on full modalities."

Outside the convention center, various protest groups staged demonstrations to vent their anger and concerns about the WTO and globalization, which many of them believe benefit primarily the rich and powerful.

Gathering for a march at a downtown park, farmers from South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines and Brazil punched their fists in the air and beat drums and gongs.

Holding banners that said "drastic market opening kills farmers" and "World Threatening Organization," they planned to march toward the conference venue later Tuesday.

At another protest, the aid group Oxfam employed some star power in a skit, getting help from Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal and Benin singer Angelique Kidjo.

In the skit, activists dressed up as leaders of developed nations, including U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and symbolically dumped heaps of corn, cotton and rice on a map of Asia and Africa.

Bernal then stepped in to shoo them away, shouting "Out," while Kidjo chanted, "Stop dumping!"

Oxfam claims that rich nations oversubsidize their farmers, leading them to overproduce and send cheap exports to developing countries, crowding out local producers.

The protests are being closely watched because demonstrations at past World Trade Organization meetings have turned violent.