HONG KONG: Numerical strength may not matter much in the context of the World Trade Organisation's underlying principle of arriving at agreements through consensus, but this does not stop the developed nations from pushing up the strength of the delegation at the ministerial conferences.

Massive inequality

According to the calculations by World Development Movement (WDM), a U.K.-based non-governmental organisation, on the strength of the delegation, just as in previous ministerials, the ongoing Hong Kong conference shows a massive inequality in negotiating strength.

Such a situation in turn "makes a development outcome less likely," the Movement said, pointing out that the European Union had a record 832 people in its delegation, while for the U.S. the number was "a massive 356." For the Cancun ministerial meet, the E.U. and the U.S. teams had 651 and 212 people respectively.

The second largest single country delegation at the ongoing meet here is that of Japan with 229. On the other end of the scale, 46 countries, including Bolivia, Rwanda, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chad, Colombia and Gambia, have less than ten delegates. The Central African Republic has no delegates at all.

However, there a number of developing countries that bucks the trend like Uganda with 66 people and Kenya (62). Peter Hardstaff, WDM's head of policy, said: "This massive inequality in negotiating strength makes it extremely difficult for many small, poor countries to participate in negotiations where decisions are taken that are literally a matter of life or death for millions of their people."

Rich countries, he said in a statement, field vast teams of lawyers, experts and negotiators to make sure they get the result they want. A small country with only two or three delegates could not hope to compete.

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