The World Trade Organisation (WTO) began the sixth ministerial conference of its 11-year history in Hong Kong yesterday.
As the first sessions opened, the the row between Washington and Brussels over food aid to poor countries intensified with EU trade chief Peter Mandelson demanding "radical reform" of the US system as part of a broader deal on trade in farm goods.
The US currently sends donations to developing countries in the form of its own domestic corn, wheat and other commodities. The European Union argues that cash is less likely to affect the delicate balance of local trade.
"Radical reform of US food aid is an essential part of any agreement we may reach in this round on the elimination of export subsidisation," Mandelson told a briefing as talks opened in Hong Kong to push forward the troubled Doha trade round.
Attempts to strike a deal cutting rich nations' farm support are already floundering, with developing nations saying the EU in particular must offer more to open its markets.
The EU and the US had hoped to advance negotiations on the section of farm talks relating to export competition in Hong Kong.
The food aid negotiations are part of that larger discussion.
US trade representative Rob Portman told reporters that he did not understand the EU's "obsession" with food aid, adding it was misplaced.
"We have put forward a proposal to tighten food aid to ensure it meets criteria so that commercial displacement does not occur," Christin Baker, a spokeswoman for Portman said.
WTO director-general Pascal Lamy said the US and the EU needed to find an agreement that would resolve concerns on both sides. "We hope - and they could perfectly do that this week if they want to - they will do it because this is the key to a date for a total elimination of export subsidies," he said.
The conference is part of the so-called Doha Development Round that began in November 2001. It aims to reduce agricultural tariffs on subsidies, to assist developing countries but also to enhance access by firms from developed countries to markets in poorer nations. Other items on the agenda include addressing the problem of theft of intellectual property and anti-dumping practices.
At least six anti-globalisation protesters were injured in a scuffle with riot police in Hong Kong yesterday as World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks got underway at a convention centre about 1km away.
One of the injured was outspoken Marxist and pro-democracy legislator "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, known for his flowing locks and Che Guevara T-shirts.
Eyewitnesses said police had used pepper spray to push protesters back as they rushed police lines, crashing against their plastic shields. Television showed some policemen with what appeared to be shotguns behind the main police ranks.
Nearby, about 70 - mostly South Korean - protesters leapt into Hong Kong harbour, where they bobbed in the murky water wearing orange life-jackets and punching the air with their fists for about half an hour before climbing out.
"The WTO is driving us to our deaths," one man shouted.
The incidents came at the end of what had been a peaceful march by more than 2,000 people to protest against trade liberalisation.
