Post-Hong Kong Insights

Image: Flickr, World Trade Organization
Image: Flickr, World Trade Organization

The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the first since the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, has missed many deadlines since its 2001 launch in Doha, Qatar.

The Sixth Ministerial Meeting, in Hong Kong in December 2005, was therefore a crucial date in the Round’s calendar. Opinions on what Hong Kong achieved and did not achieve vary. Those of Pascal Lamy, the WTO’s Director General, and those of Peter Mandelson, the European Union’s Commissioner for Trade, were given in two separate addresses to audiences at SAIIA in February 2006.

Below are links to Pascal Lamy and Peter Mandelson’s speeches in full text, as well an assessment of the Hong Kong Ministerial by Faizel Ismail, South Africa’s Head of Delegation.

The views expressed in this publication/article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).