Pre-conference Predictions
Although WTO members are eager to reach a deal in MC6, a 42-page draft unveiled by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy show how far they are agreeing on critical issues.
The draft does reflect some progress made over 18 months on new anti-dumping rules and customs facilities improvement. However, the two subjects, reducing tariffs and subsidies on either agriculture or manufactured goods, have held up the negotiations.
Trade officials said unless progress has been made in negotiations in these two subjects, meaningful deal can hardly be reached in MC6.
France's Trade Minister, Christine Lagarde said there would not be consensus and there will not be major progress in Hong Kong in an interview with a Hong Kong local newspaper South China Morning Post.
Read more about this topic: World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Of 2005
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—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)