Trade, agricultural subsidies and equal access to technology. The WTO has stated that it seeks to assist developing countries enhance their rural-based economies. It has been suggested that advanced technology could be provided by other countries. Developing countries are seeking easier access to foreign markets, especially those in the EU and North America. Moreover, they are seeking a larger quota of export and free tax for their products. In order to protect the interests of developing countries and recognise their needs, the term 'consider positively' may be extended to seven years as to eliminate any measures that are inconsistent with the overall goals of the WTO. Should these efforts have succeeded, the MC6 would have made substantial progress towards fulfilling its mandate. The barriers faced by the MC6 Many groups of people are not happy with the WTO as they believe it symbolizes the exploitation of poor countries by the developed countries. Thus, there are many protests and demonstrations organised during each WTO conference. Besides, as the number of member countries in WTO is large, it is not easy to reach an agreement which gets the consensus of the participating countries. Therefore, the last two Ministerial Conferences which included the Ministerial meetings at Seattle and Cancún failed. It was not easy to tell if the MC6 could reach any final agreement. Participations of the member countries Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations is an association of 53 countries. Its 1.8 billion citizens, about 30 per cent of the world's population are drawn from a broad range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions. In the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta, on 25–27 November 2005, the group issued its Valletta Statement on Multilateral Trade calling on "all developed countries to demonstrate the political courage and will to give more than they receive." The Commonwealth has also acknowledged that "Agriculture is the most distorted sector of world trade" and has put renewed pressure on the European Union to commit to a time-table to reduce agricultural subsidies. Africa The main concern of Africa in the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization was to have the right of entry to the Northern markets for tropical products, and to defend African markets from profoundly subsidised exports dumped onto their market. On conjugal support, the proposal is for rich countries to cut down their support to home farmers and to