CHINA / APEC Summit
APEC leaders to call for study on free-trade area
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-11-14 11:46
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and other APEC leaders are
expected to call for a landmark study on forging an Asia-Pacific-wide
free trade agreement, a senior US official said.
Workers take a break outside the venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Hanoi November 14, 2006. Hanoi hosts the
annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting from November 12
to 19 as the World Trade Organisation's newest member and Asia's only
candidate to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security
Council in the 2008-09 term. [Reuters]
They could establish working groups to look into the benefits of the
free-trade area among the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum, including the United States, Japan, Russia,
China and most Southeast Asian economies, the official said ahead of a
Hanoi summit this week.
The proposed free-trade area among APEC economies, which account for
nearly half of world trade and generate 70 percent of global economic
growth, comes amid a deadlock in talks to forge a new global trade accord.
"The idea is to really evaluate whether an APEC-wide free-trade agreement
would be a benefit to the members of APEC," the US official said, on
condition of anonymity. It would "lay out the game plan for determining
how one might come together," he added.
The leaders are expected to focus on "what source of analysis and what
source of working groups might be established over the next year to
really understand what would need to be accomplished to make a free-trade
agreement of the Asia-Pacific a reality and what the benefits would be to
APEC members," he said.
Business groups in the region have lobbied for several years for a
regional free-trade plan linking both sides of the Pacific. But APEC
leaders have sidestepped the controversial idea, including even a
feasibility study.
The United States is believed to be spearheading the initiative among
member economies to look into the viability of the plan, which could face
opposition from China forging its own set of intra-regional free trade
plans.
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the United States hoped the
Asia-Pacific free-trade plan would eventually become a reality.
"We aren't talking about suddenly launching a negotiation for a
free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific region. I think over time we would
hope to see that evolve and it's a good topic" for discussions within
APEC, she said.
Now that Washington wants to explore this issue further, "I think there
is real weight behind it," an APEC official told AFP on condition of
anonymity. "That is the real development."
APEC, which operates by consensus, is already implementing a nonbinding
tariff-busting plan to achieve free trade and investment among developed
member economies by 2010 and developing members 10 years later.
The plan, adopted in 1994, is ineffective and needs to be overhauled,
critics say.
The US-led move to revive the regional free-trade idea could signal
European nations and others that are not in APEC, such as India and
Brazil, on the need for an agreement on the stalled Doha Round of global
trade talks, experts said.
"This is absolutely critical. Particularly at a time when there's lots of
questions about whether there can be any positive movement on the trade
front going forward," said Grant Aldonas, a business expert at the
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Doha round began in the Qatari capital at the end of 2001, with the
goal of reducing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to commerce and
raising living standards in developing countries.
But the talks have consistently been dogged by disputes between rich and
poor nations, as well as among wealthy players such as the United States
and the European Union, over the concessions required.
A compromise among the heavyweights is seen as the key to the round and
Bush is expected to seek the support of his APEC counterparts for a
strong call for resumption of the Doha talks.
The US official emphasized that APEC leaders were committed to forging a
new global trade accord, saying "a discussion of a free-trade agreement
for Asia-Pacific in no way is in conflict with the notion of a successful
Doha round."
Bush is also set to sign an agreement in Hanoi with Russian President
Vladimir Putin on Russia's long-delayed accession to the WTO but his plan
to normalize trading relations with former enemy Vietnam suffered an
early setback Monday in Congress.
APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the
United States and Vietnam.
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