Day 5

Day 5... 17th December

The production of a new draft text today seemed to do little to reconcile the positions of developed and developing countries. The latter have now galvanised into the ‘G110’ – comprised of the poorer developing countries of the G-90 and the richer developing countries of the G-20. This new grouping - which showed remarkable resilience in the negotiations - demonstrates the depth of the differences between developed and developing country positions here at Hong Kong.

The impasse within the convention centre was reflected in the increasingly vocal stand-off between police and demonstrators outside the meeting. The police seem to heavily outnumber the demonstrators, but were outnumbered in turn by Hong Kong residents thronging the streets last night to take pictures of the demonstrations with cameras and mobile phones. WWF staff did not witness any serious violence – most of the demonstrators seem pacific, and there is a theatrical air to many of the encounters with police at the barriers to the convention centre. Never the less the press this morning report a total of 70 injured.

The demonstrations did however succeed in halting negotiations for a while - the convention centre was closed off, with ministers unable to get to the negotiating rooms.

In the mean time the WWF team is busily pursuing the truth behind the many rumours put out by the main protagonists – often the EU or the US - in an effort to cover their intransigence. Given that the WTO delegates are in a part of the centre separated from the NGOs by 40 metres of water and a secured bridge this can be a challenging pursuit, but one the WWF team is up to. We are armed with the cell phone numbers of key negotiators in whom we can place at least some trust!