Officials had done their best to lower expectations about what might be achieved, and it was just as well. The ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong on December 13th-18th amounted to little more than an expensive experiment in sleep deprivation. For six days (and quite a few nights) politicians from 149 countries haggled, accompanied by almost 6,000 officials and watched by nearly 3,000 journalists and more than 1,000 people from non-governmental organisations. Large parts of the host city were shut down as police were attacked by demonstrators, most prominently South Korean rice farmers furious at the prospect of freer trade in their markets. As everyone left, there was not much to show for all their efforts.
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