We have some news from the inside

The WTO has released a draft ministerial statement - a 7-page double-sided first draft of the results of negotiations so far. It is a dry, formal document written in bureaucratese, but our political team is reading every paragraph carefully to find out what decisions are being made.

We are lucky to have this document so quickly. There are enormous line-ups for the few functioning photocopiers inside the convention centre, as delegates desperately try to find out what they just agreed to.

For the uninitiated, reading the document is a little like trying to find the plot of a book by reading the index. It constantly refers to paragraphs in previously released documents, changes to said paragraphs, and reaffirmations of aforementioned paragraphs. It is not a final document, with dates often left out. But if carefully read, it gives a good indication of how the final agreement - or lack of agreement - will have been formed.

The members of our political team are going through each paragraph, sentence by sentence, getting ready to respond to the draft document. After some agreement has been reached, our delegates will disperse and talk to anyone who will listen, telling them what we think of the agreements so far.