After the first two days of the workshop on trade justice, organized by Oxfam Hong Kong and Oxfam IYP, I have to say I have learned a lot about trade and its local ramifications. It's great to meet with and learn from people who are doing on-the-ground work and can tell the tale on how global trade rules affect their daily lives.

I am not at all a trade expert, but have always considered trade to be a very important part of the Millennium Development Goals (trade, although vaguely worded, is one of the targets on MDG 8). Still, the overall effects of trade are clearer to me now than before. It was especially interesting to listen to Connie from Kenya (who is a Regional Focal Point for the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS) and how important these trade negotiations (through TRIPS) are to the access to medicine for HIV/AIDS victims.

We also had a bunch of interesting speakers today. Walden Bello (see picture), a well-known man within civil society and the director of Focus on the Global South, gave us an overview of the problems neo-liberalism has faced over the last few years, in addition to an appeal for the young people to help derail the WTO. An interesting speaker for sure, although I don't completely agree with all of his ideas. I especially reacted when he literally celebrated the suicide of a Korean farmer, which more or less led to the collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun in 2003. Even if the outcome was good, I don't think talking about suicide as effective activism is the right way to go.

I also have take my hat off for a presenter from India, who managed to turn the topic "Issues of governance in the Indian rice chain" into a really interesting and engaging presentation!

At night we went into the city of Hong Kong for the first time. We had dinner at a restaurant by the harbour with an amazing view of the Hong Kong skyline, and we also got a chance to chat among ourselves in a more informal setting, which is always good.

I talked with a few people about our plans for a youth caucus, and a strong point against it is that we shouldn't let the WTO benefit from and promote our official participation (look! we have young people involved) when our voices are most likely to be diminished. Also, a lot of youth groups are already working to change the WTO from the outside, and it could be limit their chances of affecting the WTO if there is an official youth caucus.

I still think there is a case for trying to engage in a more effective dialogue with the WTO and try to promote change from the inside. With effective coordination and collaboration between the various groups we can push for change from all angles.

I also had a long and interesting chat with Sanushka, who is coordinating the workshop, about youth activism in general. I asked her about the question that's been bothering me the last few months: how do you get the average young person sufficiently inspired to make a lasting and substantial contribution to positive social change? No quick solution was found, but we discussed a few ideas.

Well, it's late and I have a long day ahead of me. More to follow!