UPDATE: Protesters Disrupt Inaugural, Threaten NGOs’ Status at Conference (scroll down)

Liveblogging the Inaugural Session of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, from the cavernous Grand Hall at the Hong Kong convention center:

3:00 p.m. (Hong Kong time): Hong Kong commerce secretary and chairman of the conference John Tsang calls the ministerial to order.

3:05: Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, delivers opening remarks. Tsang puts much of the blame for poverty in Less Developed Countries (LDC) on economic protectionism throughout the world, and stresses the importance of the WTO in addressing this. He says Hong Kong is a perfect example of the success of global economic interdependence.

3:14: John Tsang addresses the 3,000+ attendees — delegates from all 149 WTO members, members of the press, and for the first time for a WTO Ministerial, members of various NGOs like Oxfam. Tsang stresses two successes of the Doha Round of trade talks since they were launched in Doha, Qatar in Dec. 2001. First, he says that the agreement to eliminate agricultural subsidies by a specific date found in the framework put together in July 2004 was a major step forward. ME: I’m not sure this is such a great success story. When the U.S. proposed 2010 as the date by which all export subsidies should be eliminated, the EU balked, and we’re kind of back at square one on the issue. The second success, an agreement on allowing poor countries flexibility in importing generic drugs, is an issue I know less about.

3:23: WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, former trade representative for the EU, addresses the attendees, he starts in English but then switches to French, so I only understand a little of what he