Negotiations to improve global trade could well have collapsed in Hong Kong, putting the future of the World Trade Organisation in doubt. With expectations so low, the reaching of an agreement yesterday - no matter how limited its scope - is a sign of progress.
The momentum of four years of talks stemming from an agenda formulated in Doha has at least been kept moving, albeit slowly. Much work remains to be done when negotiators meet again for the so-called Hong Kong II talks, planned for early next year in Geneva, to resolve the nuts-and-bolts details of an eventual trade pact by the end of April.
Whether the negotiations can be concluded by the hoped-for deadline of the end of next year, when US fast-track legislation to avoid difficult approval from Congress expires, remains uncertain; Hong Kong, though, will not go down as the city where the Doha round died, as the Mexican resort of Cancun almost did in 2003.
Instead, the WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference weathered scepticism and anti-globalisation protesters to inch towards a compromise on agricultural market access, central to the goal of global trade liberalisation. That a more comprehensive deal was not struck was a disappointment; nonetheless, the agreements at least showed some willingness by rich nations to adhere to the spirit of the Doha round of WTO negotiations.
Those objectives, mapped out in the Qatari city in November 2001, are straightforward: to improve world-wide trade and investment through enhanced rules for economic growth, employment and poverty reduction; better international governance; and the promotion of sustainable development. Few argue with such ideals - it is how the WTO intends to attain them that brings protesters onto the streets.
Access to markets
