Read the other Global Envision blogs from Hong Kong:
December 12, 2005 – Why Free Trade?
December 13, 2005 – Aid For Trade
December 13, 2005 – Food Fight
December 14, 2005 – Results of Day One of WTO Negotiations in Hong Kong
December 15, 2005 – The Joy of the Press Conference
December 16, 2005 – The Word of the Day is Deadlock
December 17, 2005 – Wrapping Up in Hong Kong

I'm in a cavernous room in the Hong Kong Convention Center, watching the WTO Opening Ceremony on giant plasma-screen televisions with hundreds of other attendees. We're all typing away on wireless laptops. Many are wearing headphones to hear the speeches translated into one of ten different languages. Hundreds of people are actually at the ceremonies next door, with thousands more on the streets. Also, on my way to the ballroom, I noticed a few boats in the Hong Kong harbor with custom made “message sails.” We're all here for the same reason: The 6th WTO Ministerial Meetings.

People who refer to the WTO as a medieval organization, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy correctly noted, would change their mind if they saw the modern-day efficiency of these meetings. As an NGO representative, I have my own desk -- about the same size of the one in my Mercy Corps office -- as well as access to a free office --service area the size of a spacious Kinko’s. I can blog, fax, copy, call home and listen to the Opening Ceremony in Russian simultaneously. Technology assistants float around in florescent orange vests, but seem relatively bored because everything is going so smoothly. My desk chair was too low for me, and even that minor inconvenience was solved quickly with a seat pad. When I went through security on my way in, the staff held my laptop backpack up to my shoulders for me. I could get used to this.

This is the first WTO meeting at which the NGO representatives are in the same building as the general business meeting. In the past, NGO delegates might have been in a different part of town, inhibiting an open consultation process. Here, the accredited NGO participants have been given a floor of conference rooms and practically an all-access pass to everywhere else. Two hundred seats were set aside for NGOs for the Opening Ceremony (for more than 2,200 accredited NGO representatives) and 50 seats are designated for NGO representatives at plenary sessions. We can also take any open seat. Personally, I prefer to watch the proceedings from the conference room so that I can pound away on my trusty laptop instead of being wedged between black suits.

Every evening, the NGO delegation is offered a private, off-the-record briefing with designated members of the WTO Secretariat. We also have access to official press briefings -- although I'm told we might lose that privilege soon. It seems press conferences are a good time for people to shout slogans, unfurl banners and exhibit other disruptive behaviors. We've been told to exercise “calm behavior” lest all NGOs lose their invitation to the briefings.

The various opening speeches had a common theme: There should be no cheers in the streets if this meeting fails. What could be good about resources being spent on a meeting with no results?

This is the first time Mercy Corps has sent any of its employees to a WTO meeting. As an organization, we realize that trade is central to the long-term development of the countries we serve. But in the past, the WTO's agenda has not dovetailed with the development agenda. As it looks now, the two agendas probably won't be successfully integrated here, either. Still, it's important for organizations like Mercy Corps to monitor both the action in the conference halls and the streets outside.

That's where Laura Guimond is right now. She's Mercy Corps director of external relations, and she's out listening to what the protesters have to say. As I mentioned in my first blog, the positions between the trade reps and the protesters are not all that far apart, at least in some cases. And although some organizations still want to dismantle the WTO, quite a lot of them are employing a dual-track strategy. Inside the Convention Center, they meet with trade representatives and other government officials to press their positions. Outside, they put pressure on the folks inside by complaining to the global media about the way things are going.

Opening Statements

The various opening speeches had a common theme: There should be no cheers in the streets if this meeting fails. What could be good about resources being spent on a meeting with no results? The WTO will go forward, and the more that gets done in each WTO negotiating session, the better the chances that an open and equitable trading system can come about sooner rather than later.

Pascal Lamy, the Director General of the WTO, recognized that the WTO is not the most popular international organization around, to say the least. As if to justify its lack of popularity, he said it is also not the biggest international organization. The WTO budget, he said, is five times smaller than that of FIFA, the world soccer governing body, and ten times smaller than one “famous non-governmental organization that advocates against the WTO." At one point, dozens of protesters inside the hall forced Lamy to raise his voice as they chanted: “Development yes, Doha no.”

Speechmakers encouraged delegates to look for happy mediums during this conference because, whatever side they are on, this is their chance to negotiate for their position. Lamy emphasized that the WTO decision-making process is a democratic one, and made the aside that if it were different, not democratic, then the negotiations would probably be a lot easier. Under GATT, the predecessor of the WTO, Lamy said the word ‘flexibility’ in negotiations meant “we have successfully concealed everything we need to conceal, so let’s go forward." By that measure, he said WTO attendees should be proud of how things are done here.

He also recognized that there is asymmetry in world trade. He said that by nature of the process all participants are meant to be winners in a negotiation -– each side should emerge with something -- but for there to be any winners at all some risk has to be taken. This week is nearly five years in the making, and there is no sense in making that wasted time. Freer and fairer trade is the best chance for sustainable development.

In closing, Lamy offered the thought that short of a magic wand he can only give his best advice: delegates must be open minded, bold and courageous if they are to depart Hong Kong claiming success.




Photo credit Laura Guimond, Mercy Corps Director of External Relations.

Blog by Erin Thomas, Managing Editor Global Envision. Erin and Laura are in Hong Kong with other global NGOs advocating for free trade policies that are fair. Please send them any comments or questions and stay tuned for the inside scoop on negotiations.

Read the other Global Envision blogs from Hong Kong:
December 12, 2005 – Why Free Trade?
December 13, 2005 – Aid For Trade
December 13, 2005 – Food Fight
December 14, 2005 – Results of Day One of WTO Negotiations in Hong Kong
December 15, 2005 – The Joy of the Press Conference
December 16, 2005 – The Word of the Day is Deadlock
December 17, 2005 – Wrapping Up in Hong Kong

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