SUMMARY OF 13 DECEMBER 2005
Day 1: Conference opens formally and ministers consult on industrial goods
Hong Kong, China’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang formally opened the Sixth °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Ministerial Conference on 13 December 2005, and ministers started consultations on market access for non-agricultural products.
See also:
> Hong Kong
Ministerial main page
> Hong Kong
briefing notes
NOTE:
THIS BRIEFING NOTE IS DESIGNED TO HELP JOURNALISTS AND THE PUBLIC
UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HONG KONG MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE. WHILE EVERY
EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THE CONTENTS ARE ACCURATE, IT DOES NOT
PREJUDICE MEMBER GOVERNMENTS' POSITIONS.
Meeting summaries:
> 14 December
> 15 December
> 16 December
> 17 December
> 18 December
Other °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Ministerials:
> °ä²¹²Ô³¦ún
10–14&²Ô²ú²õ±è;³§±ð±è³Ù.&²Ô²ú²õ±è;2003
>
Doha 9–14&²Ô²ú²õ±è;±·´Ç±¹.&²Ô²ú²õ±è;2001
>
Seattle 30&²Ô²ú²õ±è;±·´Ç±¹.–3&²Ô²ú²õ±è;¶Ù±ð³¦.&²Ô²ú²õ±è;1999
> Geneva
18-20 May 1998
> Singapore
9–13&²Ô²ú²õ±è;¶Ù±ð³¦.&²Ô²ú²õ±è;1996
The opening session took place in the afternoon and featured statements from Chief Executive Tsang, Commerce, Industry and Technology Secretary John C Tsang of Hong Kong, China, who is the conference chairperson, °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Director-General Pascal Lamy, General Council Chairperson Amina Mohamed, who is Kenya’s ambassador to the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ, and UNCTAD Secretary-General (and former °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Director-General) Supachai Panitchpakdi, on behalf of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Ministers then proceeded to the business of the conference. Chairperson John Tsang confirmed his earlier announcement in the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ General Council in Geneva that he had invited six ministers to act as “facilitators” to help him with negotiations on various subjects. Three of them are:
-
Non-agricultural market access — Commerce Minister Humayun Khan of Pakistan
-
Agriculture — Trade and Industry Minister Mukhisa Kituyi of Kenya
-
Development issues — Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Minister Clement Rohee of Guyana
Three more are facilitators-at-large, who could assist as necessary on services, rules and other issues:
-
Trade Minister Hyun Chong Kim of Korea (he started work on services the following day);
-
Foreign Minister Jonas Støre of Norway; and
-
Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker of Chile
> For the °ä²¹²Ô³¦ún “friends of the chair”, see °ä²¹²Ô³¦ún first day report
At a press conference later, Chairperson Tsang said he and the facilitators
will be holding informal meetings both among the full membership and in
smaller groups, ensuring “transparency” and “inclusiveness”, i.e. that all
members are informed and are represented in the consultations.
As in previous Ministerial Conferences, these informal meetings will take
place while the formal plenary continues with general statements from
ministers. The first consultation began shortly after the opening session,
on non-agricultural market access.
back to top
Non-agricultural market access
Group meeting 5 pm
This first meeting was short. Facilitator
Humayun Khan (Pakistan) said he hoped members would avoid the temptation
to use the large meetings to restate well-known positions or to make
tactical statements. The more time members spend in large meetings the
less time will be available to make real progress, he said.
He proposed concentrating the negotiations on small group meetings or
consultations between himself and individual delegations so that he can
sense members’ interests and concerns. For transparency, he will also hold
meetings with the full membership.
Mr Khan said that his objective as facilitator is to reach a result in
non-agricultural market access that would be acceptable to everybody.
“It may not be the one you would have sought or desired but that is what
compromises are made of. This is where the challenge lies and of course
this challenge is yours to meet,” he said.
“It remains to be seen how much we can improve the [draft ministerial]
text, if at all, but we must all do our best”.
He also said it would be a pity to waste the opportunity of this
Ministerial to move the non-agricultural market access negotiations
forward.
“If we don’t make progress this week we leave ourselves a monumental task
next year”, he said.
No member spoke and the meeting ended.
>
For explanations see the briefing notes
> See also draft ministerial text,
paragraphs 12 to 18
and Annex B