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HK to push for trade liberalisation at WTO conference

The Director-General of Trade, Mr Tony Miller, today (Friday) outlined Hong Kong's aspirations for the first World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference which will be held in Singapore in December this year, under three broad headings.

He said: "The first is liberalisation and the need to accelerate it. The second is the need to revamp the rules for trade and investment. The third is the problem of the disadvantaged, those whom prosperity has left behind."

Addressing the luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce, Mr Miller noted that various players had put forward ideas on the agenda for the Singapore meeting and that Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry, Yeo Cheow Tong, captured the current broad consensus at an informal conference in Brisbane in February.

Minister Yeo's five-point agenda covered: Stock-taking, Unfinished Business, Trade and Environment, Further Trade Liberalisation and New Issues.

"Setting aside debate over which new issues will be eventually included, Hong Kong is happy to support this outline agenda. However, I think we face a bigger challenge in Singapore than these five headings suggest," Mr Miller said.

"Singapore is not just about whether or not we should have a new round of multilateral negotiations. Singapore is about whether we carry on plodding along in the same way, or whether we take a bold new look at what we are doing and how we do it. I think we would be foolish to pass up this challenge."

The Director-General pointed out that multilateral trade negotiations had often been criticised for their glacial speed, saying that one of the reasons they move so slowly was that they had become highly institutionalised.

"When process begins to block progress, I think the time is ripe for looking at new ways of doing things," Mr Miller said.

"So, at Singapore, you can expect us to push for more and more rapid liberalisation. We want to set targets for completely free trade, rather than only agreeing on the next limited incremental cut.

"We want to see several tariffs abolished immediately. We also want to see textiles and clothing removed more rapidly from their current quota straight-jacket."