World trade ministers launched a fresh bid to salvage free trade negotiations amid little hope for major headway, as thousands of protesters marched in the streets to denounce the WTO as an enemy of the poor.
The United States warned trading partners on Wednesday that the world would slip back into protectionism without progress in global talks to reform world commerce, stunting economic growth and hitting the poor.
Thousands of anti-globalization activists marched through Hong Kong watched by a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of violence that has rocked previous WTO meetings.
The United States will have to open its market to more foreign temporary workers as part of any new world trade deal, despite strong opposition in the US Congress, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Wednesday.
Though there are problems in all the critical areas of agriculture, viz., market access, domestic subsidy and export subsidy, the key questions are in the domestic subsidy of the developed countries
With the World Trade Organization meeting under way, the United States is trying to convince West African governments to pressure the European Union into making a bigger offer to cut agricultural tariffs and subsidies.
Martin Khor and Hira Jhamtani, TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues
The Group of 20 developing countries held a Ministerial meeting Tuesday morning and issued a G20 Ministerial Declaration reaffirming its position that agriculture is the central issue of the Doha Round .
