The environmental group Greenpeace welcomed WTO delegates at the Hong Kong airport with two activists wearing models of trashed video monitors over their heads.

The group believes that free trade will lead to more dumping of electronic waste in developing countries.

The weeklong WTO ministerial conference starting Tuesday aims to lay the groundwork for a treaty liberalizing global trade.

Separately, several dozen people held up big props of a farmer, a bowl of rice and a bag of cotton as they paraded through the Causeway Bay shopping district. The protest organizer, aid group Oxfam, says those goods are unfairly subsidized in developed countries.

The protesters chanted, "make trade fair." One demonstrator banged a drum and another collapsed cymbals.

Oxfam says developed countries subsidize agricultural products inordinately, leading their farmers to overproduce and export surplus goods to developing countries, where local farmers can't compete with cheap imports.

Hong Kong pop star Anthony Wong shared observations from a recent trip to Ghana. He said local rice farmers suffer because they can't match the low prices of imports and can't export to foreign countries because of restrictions.

"They constantly live in an unfair world," Wong said.

Oxfam says it has collected more than 17.8 million signatures from more than 200 countries urging the WTO and rich countries to tackle unfair pricing.

Oxfam Hong Kong activist Madeleine Slavick said the group plans to hand over the signatures to WTO chief Pascal Lamy Monday.

On the Net:
http://www.greenpeace.org
http://www.oxfam.org