H.K. won't host any follow-up WTO gathering next year: Tsang

HONG KONG, Nov. 11 Kyodo

Hong Kong would not host another World Trade Organization ministerial meeting next year even if one is planned to follow up on December's ministerial here, Commerce, Industry and Technology Secretary John Tsang said Friday.

''There is no plan to hold another ministerial following the one to be held in Hong Kong,'' Tsang said at a Foreign Correspondents' Club luncheon.

Tsang was commenting on remarks Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim made Tuesday that ''we may need a Hong Kong II'' if the Dec. 13-18 meeting in Hong Kong fails to reach a wide-ranging agreement on trade-opening steps.

Despite huge differences remaining between the European Union and developing countries in negotiations on farm and industrial trade barriers, Tsang was optimistic that the December meeting would be held as scheduled.

''The progress of negotiation is going on. We will get a much better assessment in the next few weeks,'' he said.

Tsang acknowledged that the negotiating picture is ''rather cloudy'' and warned it would be ''disastrous'' for the WTO members if the December ministerial fails to help conclude the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks by the end of 2006.

''If you were negotiating on the bases of 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,' you would be holding everything back until the very last minute,'' he said. ''It's just like playing cards. No player will expose all their cards, there must be a trump card not yet drawn.''

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