European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said he would not be offering any new concessions on agriculture at the WTO talks in Hong Kong. Trade ministers have gathered in Hong Kong to work on a deal to open markets and boost the global economy, with the European Union quickly under fire for its refusal to cut farm subsidies further. (Source: Xinhua/AFP)

Ministers from 149 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) gathered in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon to open the Sixth Ministerial Conference in a new bid to push forward the stalled Doha Round trade talks.

Addressing the opening session, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Donald Tsang said, "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance the existing international trading environment."

"It would become a key staging post to the successful conclusion of the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda," the HKSAR chief executive said, promising that people in Hong Kong were determined to make the meeting a success.

John Tsang, HKSAR trade chief and chairman of the Hong Kong meeting, said Hong Kong, as host of the long-awaited meeting, would serve as "a launching pad" for the final stage of negotiations and early success of the Doha Round.

He admitted that agriculture, notably reduction and elimination of the farm subsidies, presented a challenge to the Doha Round talks.

However, he said, WTO "members agreed to take up this challenge and pressed on vigorously with the negotiations because we recognized the quickening pace of global interdependence."

The Hong Kong meeting, attended by 5,800 delegates from 149 WTO members and 2,100 representatives from non-governmental organizations, will focus on the topics of the Doha Round, which aims to reduce farm subsidies and tariffs, liberalize service trade and provide economic aids to developing countries.

Launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, the Doha Round bogged down in a deadlock over farm subsidies, which pitted mainly rich countries against poor ones.

It was put back on track following a meeting in July 2004, at which WTO members agreed to phase out farm subsidies.

In his speech, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy advised all the delegates to be "more open-minded and bolder" in their negotiations so as to achieve the satisfactory results.

"A popular Chinese proverb says 'If you do not go into the cave of the tiger, how will you get its cub?'" Lamy said. "In other words: nothing ventured, nothing gained."

The WTO chief warned that repeating the long-known positions, using negotiators' language, refusing to understand the reasons of counterparts and avoiding any risks including political risks will only "get us to nowhere."

He encouraged all WTO members to be open-minded, bold and courageous at the six-day conference to deal with the difficult and complex negotiations.

Echoing Lamy's warning, Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD), said the lack of major gains in Hong Kong would be a severe disappointment for poor people throughout the world.

"Development -- real gains in real peoples' lives -- remains the primary benchmark for success of the Doha Round," he said on behalf of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

He urged the European Union and G8 countries to set a clear, unambiguous date for ending trade-distorting subsidies and giving market access, especially in agriculture.

Amina Mohamed, chairwoman of the WTO General Council, urged WTO members to demonstrate resolve to push forward the Doha Round talks.

At the same time, more than 5,000 protesters from South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines and some African and European countries staged a demonstration outside the Convention and Exhibition Center, venue of the Hong Kong meeting.

Some of them clashed with police as they tried to ram through a police roadblock for entering a "forbidden zone" around the Convention and Exhibition Center.

This is the second anti-WTO demonstration held in Hong Kong within a week. Thousands of anti-globalization and anti-WTO people took to the streets on Sunday.