Postscript to Hong Kong WTO MC 6

Postscript to Hong Kong WTO MC 6
Brid Brennan
TNI Webiste, 23 December 2005

HONG KONG - The dust is settling on Hong Kong as the postmortems continue.

The WTO Ministerial Conference ended in a deal - a very bad deal for the developing countries of the South. Eleventh hour maneuverings managed to ensure the WTO's continued survival beyond Hong Kong at least. This survival was at the cost of a rift in South unity - Brazil and India moved from a position of leadership in the 'No to WTO' in Cancún to a position of junior partner with the US and EU in Hong Kong.

2013, the declared end date for the phase-out of subsidies in agriculture by the US and EU, is a long way away! In the meantime, the door has been significantly forced open for substantive concessions from the developing countries - in Agriculture, GATS (General Agreement in Trade in Services) and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access). This was never meant to be a Development Round as this Hong Kong quid pro quo clearly demonstrates once again.

Meanwhile 14 social movement activists (11 Korean, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Chinese and I Japanese) have been charged in a Hong Kong Court with unlawful assembly and were refused bail. These are the protesters singled out for charges from among the 1,000 protesters arrested on December 17th/18th during the Gloucester Street sit-in. These charges have been prepared while the detainees were held 'incomunicado' without access to lawyers and interpreters. They are being held in custody while more serious charges are being prepared. Amnesty International and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), have added their voices to the many other organisations demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees. Serious violations of human rights committed by the Hong Kong police against the 1,000 protesters during their arrest and detention are now being systemically documented by the released detainees.

The December 22 Press Statement from the Korean Struggle Mission (the delegation of Korean farmers, workers, women, and artists protesting the WTO in Hong Kong) speaks for the spirit of the Hong Kong protests as well as for the future: "the struggles of the Korean Struggle Mission were those aimed at breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and inequality, war and violence brought by neoliberal globalization, and at protecting the rights and lives of people all around the world (and) while the WTO in itself manifests its own contradictions, the anger of people around the world is all the more getting bigger, and the solidarity and unity of people against the WTO is becoming stronger".