Another day of endless speeches before the late night convening of the "big boys on the block" in the green room, where they continue with their haggling and horse trading, writes Glenys Kinnock.
This shadowy world excludes dozens of those countries who stand to lose or gain. At 10pm last night vital issues for the cotton producers of west Africa and for Europe's traditional banana suppliers were discussed.
In that debate Ecuador, Honduras and other Latinos continued with their threats to poorer countries, who represent less than 2% of the global trade in bananas and are no threat to anyone.
These issues plus sugar are of serious concern to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Their countries suffer from the effects of falling prices, from their specialisation in exports of low value, and most of all from the erosion of their preferential access to Europe.
They face the assertion being made by emerging economies like Brazil and Ecuador that Europe's trading arrangements with the ACP are now nothing more than ideological baggage which has to be got rid of as soon as possible.
The ACP feel neglected and betrayed by Europe as they struggle to make their cause for special treatment for the small island, landlocked and vulnerable economies.
The share of international trade in the Caribbean, for instance, is so small as to be irrelevant and, quite frankly, that's how they are feeling in Hong Kong.
But they should not be underestimated. Today I was invited to meet a large number of ministers to discuss a strategy.
They are not fooled by all the blather about this aid-for-trade package. How can they take it seriously when hundreds of thousands of livelihoods are being threatened here and now by the imposition of trade rules?
They can't see any real gains for the people whose interests they represent. Now they see this aid-for-trade package being represented as a substantial provision of funding for capacity-building and other support.
I fear that this will be yet another case of smoke and mirrors unless money is additional, predictable, unconditional and includes a government's right to determine how it is used. They should not accept anything less.
This morning it was described to me by a minister as, "a nebulous concept with dubious credentials".
Duty-free, quota-free access is a great idea, but the vested interests of the developed countries will exclude products of interest to them.
Developing countries are feeling misinformed and misled by the rich world's negotiators. Hong Kong is now teetering on the brink of that dissatisfaction; at risk of turning into revolt unless there are tangible, realistic, binding agreements. Post-dated cheques just won't do.
The demonstrators outside chant: "Sink the WTO." I don't hear anyone inside the conference centre agreeing with that.
But they certainly need convincing that their presence here is really worth it.
* Glenys Kinnock is blogging from the WTO summit all week. Read her posts from yesterday, Tuesday and Monday.
