Paddy Tipping questions Tony Blair over World Trade Organisation

At Prime Minister's Question Time, Paddy Tipping asked:

Although real progress was made last year towards making poverty history, the results of the World Trade Organisation discussions in Hong Kong were disappointing. What steps is my right hon. Friend going to take to give impetus to the process, so that we can move towards fair trade?

Tony Blair's answer was somewhat woolly:

We are in discussion with our principal allies, in Europe, America and elsewhere, about how we push the WTO talks on. It is important that the offer in those talks is bold and ambitious. The talks are about trade and services, as well as agriculture. We need Europe and America, as well as the emerging countries such as Brazil and India, to do more in terms of opening up their markets. The benefits of a successful trade round for all of us, not just the poorest people in the world, will be considerable. I assure my hon. Friend that we will continue to do all that we can to achieve that.

He frames out the problem - a particular point to note is his reference to trade and services. Because of existing tariffs, the Developing world tends to be forced to export only primary products such as agricultural ones. The more profitable parts of product processing are therefore carried out in the Developed world, perpetuating the disparity in wealth. What the PM omits is to answer the actual question - 'what steps is he going to take?'