A bad deal - WDM’s analysis of the outcome of the WTO’s Hong Kong ministerial meeting

WDM analyses the outcome of the WTO’s Hong Kong ministerial meeting. The analysis shows how developing countries have been further locked into the aggressive liberalisation agenda of the EU and US in services and industrial products. It argues that setting a date for the end of export subsidies is a largely symbolic gesture, one promised since the birth of the WTO. The gains were minor compared to the damage done by radical cuts in industrial tariffs and liberalisation of trade in services.