THE OUTCOME
The full declaration from the WTO is available to download here.
Read the response of Make Poverty History here.
SPOTLIGHT ON TRADE JUSTICE AT THE WTO
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting (13-18 December) was the last chance in 2005 to progress a just trade deal for the world's poor. In unprecedented numbers, citizens across the world called on rich countries at the WTO to stop pushing poor countries to open up their markets against their will and to end export dumping that damages the livelihoods of poor people.
Over 750,000 people in the UK voted for Trade Justice and 476,000 people emailed their trade representatives ahead of the all important talks.
To find out more about the WTO Ministerial go here
Reports on the WTO from our member organisations:
For daily blogs from the Ministerial, visit here and here.
Why Trade Justice is needed...
Millions of people's lives are affected by unfair trade rules.
One such person is rice farmer Rodrigo Costanilla from Philippines to hear his story click here.
News in Hong Kong
CAMPAIGNERS SEND MESSAGE TO WTO: YOU CANNOT MAKE POVERTY HISTORY WITHOUT TRADE JUSTICE.
Huge letters spelling out 'MAKE POVERTY HISTORY' were installed outside the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday 13th December, to mark the first day of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks and highlight the coalition's year-long call that Tony Blair and the UK Government deliver trade justice - not free trade - in world trade talks.
The 7.6 metres high letters were constructed out of approximately 50,000 individual white band messages collected throughout the year. The letters were created on 2 July in Edinburgh when a quarter of a million campaigners marched ahead of the G8 summit calling for more and better aid, debt cancellation and trade justice.
Despite the unprecedented public pressure of the biggest ever global anti-poverty movement, world leaders at the G8 failed to progress a just trade deal for the world's poor. The WTO talks are the last chance in 2005 to significantly advance a pro-poor deal. Campaigners are determined to push for change and the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY letters have been brought to London to remind the UK Government that now is the time to deliver trade justice.
Alison Marshall of CAFOD, a member of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY coalition said: "When this round of global trade talks was launched, it was called a 'development' round. So far the 'development' aspect has been lacking. The eyes of the world are on the trade ministers meeting in Hong-Kong - we are about to find out whether the 'development' tag was just wishful thinking."
As the White letters were on display in London the Global Call to Action Against Poverty representatives in Hong Kong marked the opening of the WTO with the formal handover of the e-action to EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. In just three short weeks, the national coalitions of GCAP and the whiteband site managed to get an amazing total of 476,733 e -actions - nearly a third of these had been sent from the UK! GCAP's trade demands were handed to Peter Mandelson by Sumie Arima GCAP Asia, Thomas Deve, GCAP Africa and Rezual Karim Chowdury GCAP Asia inside the WTO centre.