Reports from Hong Kong

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Office for International Affairs and Human Rights (OIAHR) has been monitoring World Trade Organisation (WTO) events for a few months already. The objective of this is to keep people informed of the ongoing negotiations that may have direct impacts on human development around the world.

The WTO deals with various aspects of international trade, LWF has decided to focus on 3 of them:

-  Agriculture and subsidies
-  Trade in services
-  TRIPS and public health

These issues have emerged as the aspects of the WTO’s agenda of most relevance to the LWF’s member churches and field programs. They are also the issues that have the clearest implications for human rights. The human rights perspective is the prism through which the LWF and its partners in the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance Global Trade Campaignhttp://www.e-alliance.ch/trade.jsp view the issue of international trade.

LWF OIAHR will be following negotiations among WTO members during the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. The Ministerial Conference is the highest decision making body of the WTO. These conferences take place every 2 years. Some of the previous Ministerial Conferences took place in Cancun in 2003, Doha in 2001 or Seattle in 1999. This year the city of Hong Kong is hosting this high profile event. Decisions that are taken here could affect us all. This is why LWF OIAHR will keep you informed on a daily basis of the evolution of these negotiations