Trade ministers are struggling to make progress toward a new pact to boost global commerce and faced an immediate challenge from African cotton farmers demanding a deal to cut subsidies.
Africa's near destitute cotton producers warned they would refuse to endorse any consensus in Hong Kong if rich countries did not agree to cut the subsidies that undermine their exports.
'We came here to get concrete results, not to hear more proposals that will never be respected,' said Ibrahim Malloum, head of the African Cotton Producers Association.
The African cotton producers, angry at the continued heavy subsidies paid to farmers in the developed world, especially in the United States, were a major factor in the collapse of the 2003 World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
The cotton issue came up as 149 WTO delegates were trying to find a way to bridge long-standing disputes on trade in farm products, industrial goods and services.
The likelihood of any major breakthrough was already slim because of deep-seated differences between the EU and the US, and between developed and developing countries, over farm trade and market access.
The US said it was looking ahead to a new WTO meeting to break the deadlock in the Doha Round of trade talks, which were launched in Qatar in 2001 and are due to be completed by the end of 2006.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson reiterated that Europe would offer no bigger concessions on agriculture subsidies and tariffs, putting pressure on its trading partners to move first.
'We need much, much more on the table,' he said, seeking reciprocal proposals to open up market access for the developed world's industrial goods and services to match the EU's offer on farm products.
Several groups of protestors took to the streets in Hong Kong where they clashed with police for a second day.
