Protesters, police scuffle at WTO forum

HONG KONG – Protesters clashed with police outside the World Trade Organization meeting for a second straight day today, as delegates said divisions between rich and poor nations over agricultural trade make major breakthroughs in the global talks unlikely.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy opened the six-day meeting by urging nearly 6,000 delegates from the Geneva-based trade body’s 149 member countries to be “bold, open-minded and prepared to take some risks.”

The Hong Kong meeting originally was meant to draw up an outline for a global treaty by the end of 2006 to lower or eliminate trade barriers in agriculture, manufacturing and services. But negotiations got off to a rocky start as delegates from poorer countries accused the European Union, the United States, Japan and other wealthy countries of offering insufficient cuts to their agricultural tariffs and farm subsidies.

Farming accounts for only a small slice of the world economic pie, but its critical role in the lives of billions of people has thrust it to the fore of WTO talks.

Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the EU will not change its offer of an average 46 percent cut in farm tariffs unless developing nations offer substantive reductions in their trade barriers on manufactured goods and services.

But underscoring the limited nature of his ability to negotiate, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Paris on Tuesday that France will not accept any EU budget accord that forces Europe to reform agricultural policy before 2013.

The United States has offered to eliminate government export subsidies for U.S. farm products by 2010 and to reduce by 60 percent the amount of trade-distorting domestic support the government provides U.S. farmers over the next five years. Developing nations say the U.S. offer is hollow because subsidy spending at current levels could continue.

Outside the convention site today, police used pepper spray, clubs and shields to hold back protesters trying to shove their way through the barricades. The confrontation lasted about a minute before the protesters retreated a few steps and began pumping their fists in the air to the beat of a drum. The protesters then attacked again, snatching police shields and tossing them to demonstrators in the back of the crowd.