God may have created the world, but the World Trade Organisation was created by an Irishman.

Peter Sutherland was appointed director general of the general agreement on trade and tariffs (Gatt) in 1993.

Now chairman of British Petroleum, Sutherland still retains a parental concern for the WTO. But he worries about the troubles that plague world trade.

Sutherland can talk. He is one of the few people who have grasped the holy grail of a trade agreement. In 1994 he steered the so-called Uruguay round of Gatt to conclusion in Marrakesh. This was the eighth in a series of negotiations spanning the half century since Gatt was founded in 1947. The size of the WTO and the complexity of the issues it faces demands this incremental approach.

Sutherland recalls how, in his time, seven years of painstaking negotiations came to conclusion when the Uruguay agreement was signed in Marrakesh in April 1994: "When I was director general of Gatt we decided that we would have no ministerial meetings unless and until the agreement was agreed."

Unlike in Marrakesh, no prior agreement has been finalised for participants in Hong Kong to rubber stamp, and the time to reach agreement is running out. "When you have 150 countries negotiating over a period of days then - even if you have defined leaders of those countries - it's very difficult to reach an agreement unless it has been 'pre-cooked' before you get to Hong Kong," says Sutherland.

The present, so-called Doha Development round, has tried to embrace some new concerns. Its sectoral focus is clearer. With most tariffs and non-tariff barriers eliminated in manufacturing, good progress on agriculture and services are the key stumbling blocks now.

Farmers in developing countries are a powerful lobby against any further reform of the CAP, while business interests are pressing for greater access to the non-agricultural markets of the developing world. For this reason Sutherland sees particular pressure on the EU, Brazil and India to get the talks moving.

In the opening days of the Hong Kong conference, the pressure has been mostly on the EU. But Sutherland steers clear of one-sidedness. He notes how the EU has started to reform its vast machinery of agricultural protection. "There is agreement in principle to get rid of export subsidies. Secondly, the EU has decoupled payments to agriculture from production. These are significant steps forward," he says.

Since the heady days of Seattle, the initial hostility of many non-government organisations to free trade has either become more moderate or turned to enthusiastic support. Oxfam, Comhlámh and Trócaire are among the organisations present in Hong Kong to push the case for greater access for developing country agricultural produce, a development that Sutherland can only be expected to welcome. "Many NGOs have changed their position and have realised that the WTO is vital for their future, because a rule-based system avoids a rule of the jungle scenario where the strong devour the poor and the weak," he says.

If the chairman of BP can side with aid agencies in denouncing imperialist trade preferences, then surely we live in an age where anything is possible.