The difficult part begins but all options are open.
It's dark when I wake up and day when I go to bed. It has been almost a week that I am here in Hong Kong and I have not seen much of the city, besides the convention centre and sporadically the hotel. But occasionally during the day, as I puff one of my rare cigars, I catch a glimpse of the harbour and of that boat I mentioned earlier with the blue sails. It strikes me now that it's a bit like our conscience. The message painted on the sails today in big white letters reads: "when will the poor start getting richer?" Pretty direct message for us all, as we continue on the treadmill of meetings. True, trade can contribute to alleviate poverty, but – and this is a big BUT – it is only one of the pieces of the puzzle.
My poor staff are looking at me more and more with eyes that ask: when will we get some sleep?
The answer I have to both of these questions – the one on the boat and the one from my staff – is: this depends on even more work. Any result we obtain will be the result of efforts, and will be more potent than words. As for lack of sleep, just last night we consumed 320 cups of coffee here in the office ! Not bad for the exports of developing countries. Prices are low but the volume is on the rise...
This day is a gruelling series of encounters for all of us locked in these negotiations, all conscious that time is slipping by and people – Ministers, delegates, NGOs, the press – are getting anxious.
I look at my calendar and there is a long list of groups to meet within the next few hours. I can see why many people are puzzled by this organization. There's the G20, the G6, the G10, the G90, and now the G110, G-33, the Cairns Group, the Friends of Fish, the Quad, and the Very Close Friends of Services. Any of these groups can include the most amazing diversity of countries, which, depending on the area, may be united or on completely opposite sides. When I first landed in the WTO world – and I guess to most people outside – all of these acronyms and groups and unintelligible words can look like an attempt to disguise something. And yet these are all tools to try to make negotiations advance. They advance at a geological pace, but with no country left behind. So patience is not a virtue, it's a necessity.
You must be thinking: these people spend their days and nights in meetings. What are all of these meetings about ? Think about it as a big construction that we are building, made of thousands of bricks, and 150 people laying the bricks. Clearly, before you start putting things together, you need to discuss the plan, who does what when and what the end-result will be like. Not easy, often discouraging. Take yesterday: we spent more than three hours discussing the package of trade measures for the world's poorest countries, which includes the elimination of export subsidies on agriculture and is meant to address the problem of African cotton-producers.
Then more meetings with some of the Ministers who are helping to crack some difficult nuts, complicated issues with deep political implications.
The text of the Declaration is coming together on a few points, though the sleepless nights are taking a toll on everyone's good humor. News conferences being given by Ministers show people with red eyes, under pressure. Even my staff is dozing off at meetings or trying to get a few minutes of sleep in the corridors. As any marathon runner knows, it is very important to keep the necessary energy for the last lap !
I take a quick look outside, and there goes that boat again with the blue sails. The Korean farmers are probably...[Message truncated]
Edited 12/18/2005 2:19 am by PascalLamy |
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