-up for membership. Contradictions surface very clearly during these big events: while some out there are shouting “sink the WTO!”, others, notably poorer countries, are doing everything they can to get in.
A rare moment of ease during this tough day — I’m coming out of the pressure cooker for a few minutes to attend the signing ceremony for the accession of Tonga to the WTO..... a pretty joyous occasion for this island country of 112,000 people. Tonga, the “Friendy Island”, is a “milestone” country, positioned next to the international date line — and it has a milestone place in the WTO — it will become the organization’s 150th member. Mâloh y léléi!
Back to work, although it’s already dark, many people going out for dinner. Tough luck for me and Secretariat staff. We have to stay on and prepare for the difficult task of getting everyone to agree on mapping out areas of progress — however small. Back into the “fish-bowl” for tough negotiations. Long hours, desperately trying to make people focus, I’m not allowed a moment of distraction now. I feel calm nonetheless because I’m confident that what we’re shaping has come from the bottom up, from the Members, developed and developing, small island countries, from powers like US, EU, China, India and Brazil, and also from the group of the poorest countries, who are perhaps the most eloquent of all on why we must not fail. Different interests, a myriad of signals and signs to decipher, to make sense of, before stealing a little sleep. I’m reminded of a Chinese proverb: no wind, no waves. Something is happening. A demain!
PS. I hope I have some time to shop for Christmas presents when the Conference is over.
The engine is starting to turn, even if slowly.
Bonjour... welcome to my second long day (and night) at the Ministerial. My schedule is speeding up with the pace of talks. Meeting after meeting, going from one place to the other. Still, I found a moment to catch a glimpse of the media coverage from yesterday and saw they liked the magic wand I used at the opening ceremony. It was in fact given to me in Geneva by one of my secretaries — it's a plastic toy, and it certainly doesn't work! The only magic, in the WTO, is the rare moment of consensus — which only happens as a result of a lot of work. At any rate, I think sometimes you have to use a graphic trick to get people's attention. It surely worked when I said at Cancun that the WTO process of ministerial meetings is medieval...
The setting for this Conference is closer to science fiction. Delegates seem to glide through the air from one level to another in this gigantic capsule of glass and steel, gazing out at a harbour filled with every conceivable form of vessel — cargos, tankers, cruisers, fishing boats — all somehow related to trade. The view from my office into the harbour and the constant transit of ships is fantastic — it's as if I was constantly reminded of the concreteness of these negotiations. If there is ever to be a monument to the benefits of trade, it will surely be raised in Hong Kong.
But enough reverie. The day starts early with my deputies and my staff, before the first meeting with our chairman John Tsang, the three vice-chairs and the Ministers helping him reach out as “friends”. These people are key to keeping all of our Members involved in the negotiating process. My part in keeping the discussions transparent will be to meet throughout the day with individual ministers and groups to share information and keep everything moving forward — a long agenda of meetings, some of them every half hour, without interruption. Sometimes I feel like a shepherd, sometimes like a nurse, or a mid-wife, trying to help Members in a difficult delivery....
B+B for lunch (I mean bread and bananas, of course). On the way for more meetings, I watch the policemen bobbing in their tiny boats on the choppy waters around the convention center. Who are they protecting? I would like to think that they are protecting all of us who have a stake in this conference, the demonstrators outside, the delegates and NGOs inside — everyone — to keep the debate we're engaged in as civilized and productive as possible.
The evening plenary gave us good cause to reflect on the particular plight of some of our developing and poorest members. They talked to us about the importance of cotton and bananas for their economies. The Minister of Chad made a short and very touching appeal for progress in the cotton issue. She spoke of misery and poverty, of human dignity and cooperation. The WTO is about much more than trade — in fact, it is trade that has to do with much more than tariffs and formulae: it connects with people. What those countries were really saying, when they talked about cotton and bananas, is that we MUST deal with their concerns as part of any effort to make trade fair.
The day ended with more consultations, going into the night. I'll go back to the hotel now (3:00 am), try to get a few hours of sleep, and prepare for Thursday (6:00 am). It will be a key day — the middle point of the conference.
Hi, or Nei Ho as they say here in Cantonese or Nin Hau in Mandarin.
Today is THE day: opening of the conference. Up early and a quick jog to prepare for the first long day. The news reports on TV show me dashing around all day yesterday meeting various groups. I know it was worth it. But today it’s time to focus on official business as delegations continue to arrive.
I don’t think it's just the jet lag that makes me feel the day is moving on fast forward, and here I am sitting with representatives of the G20, this new force in the multilateral system which includes Brazil, India, China and other developing countries. Their main worry is to ensure cuts to agricultural subsidies which distort trade. We have already moved a long way on this issue since we launched the talks in 2001. Next the Ministers from the Caribbean region tell me about their concerns on small economies and islands; they argue that a one-size-fits-all WTO is not possible. Afterwards, sitting in my office for a quick cup of coffee before the next step, I spot a boat with a big “For when trade justice?” painted on the sails. But, whose trade justice?
By now I’ve got butterflies in my stomach, like a runner waiting for the starting gun. I’m told there are about 11,000 men and women gathering for the opening ceremony and I remind myself that is still less than for the New York marathon. It is an impressive sea of colours as delegates stand at the opening. My main message to delegates was that we do not have a magic wand to solve our difficulties: only boldness and courage. Just as I was saying that the WTO is a pretty democratic institution, a group of NGOs started chanting anti-WTO slogans in the middle of the ceremony while a group of Korean farmers jumped into the sea to swim towards the conference centre.... any doubts about the openness of the organization? I could not stop thinking of the many contradictions around us: two thirds of the delegates inside the building want a more open trade in agriculture while the many farmers protesting in the streets and grabbing news headlines demand exactly the contrary: a closure of the markets to agricultural products. The sails of the boat come back to my mind, whose trade justice? Part of the gulf which exists in public perception over what the WTO is and is not. Clearly there is much room for improvements in communication.
This is what I try at my first press conference. Over 3000 journalists around, hungry for news. As I told them, I think we can make a step forward in Hong Kong, provided Ministers are ready to take some risks. And this is what I tell a group of Ministers I meet in the evening. Will they do it? Stay tuned.
Greetings. Loads of bread and bananas already stocked to keep me going through the week. I guess I won’t have too much time but I thought I would keep you posted on what goes on each day so that you get a flavour.
The official programme of the Conference does not start until tomorrow so today was a day for outreach to the trade community. The tone and rhythm of this Conference will change from tomorrow so I took the opportunity to meet with people who, though not directly involved in the negotiations, care deeply about their outcome. I met with parliamentarians, trade union leaders, politicians and members of civil society while managing to meet as well with lots of Ministers and their officials.
I overslept so I could only do a quick run at the gym but, given the vastness of this Conference Centre, I may be able to get all the exercise I need simply by moving from meeting to meeting inside this facility. I must say the Conference Centre is amazing — a true reflection of a modern Hong Kong. HK Trade Minister John Tsang has done a great job.
After some quick meetings with my staff this morning, I’m off to say a few words to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. As I told them, involvement of national parliamentarians in WTO matters lends trade relations necessary accountability. It is parliaments, after all, which must approve any agreement resulting from these negotiations, so keeping legislators informed and involved is of critical importance.
Then a visit to the International Confederation of Trade Unions. I can’t agree more with their insistence that trade has to create more jobs. People’s