APEC shake hands on trade, flu, terror<\/p>\n
Burt Herman, Associated Press, Busan, South Korea<\/p>\n
Asia-Pacific leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush,
\nChina's Hu Jintao and Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sought
\nto breathe life into stalled global trade negotiations at an
\nannual summit Saturday with a statement calling for a
\nbreakthrough in a stalemate with Europe over agricultural
\nsubsidies.<\/p>\n
Wrapping up their annual summit, the 21 leaders of the Asia-
\nPacific Economic Cooperation forum also promised to boost
\ncooperation on fighting terrorism and preparing for a possible
\nflu pandemic.<\/p>\n
They urged that further progress be made at international
\ntalks seeking to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear
\nweapons ambitions.<\/p>\n
\"The North Korean nuclear issue is a factor of security
\nanxiety not just for South and North Korea, but also a factor of
\nanxiety that affects the whole of Northeast Asia,\" South Korean
\nPresident Roh Moo-hyun told journalists after the meeting. If the
\nstandoff is resolved, Roh said, peace and economic cooperation
\nwould expand between the Koreas and spread the region.<\/p>\n
The trade issue dominated the two-day APEC summit, which
\noccurred three weeks before a key World Trade Organization
\nmeeting in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
The leaders, who clearly identified Europe as responsible for
\nthe deadlock on the sidelines of APEC, stopped short of naming
\nthe continent in their statement on the trade talks. Officials
\nsaid it was too politically sensitive to do so.<\/p>\n
\"We urge all other WTO members, and especially those that have
\nthe largest stake in the global trading system and derive the
\nbiggest benefits therefrom, to show the flexibilities needed to
\nmove the negotiations forward,\" the leaders said.<\/p>\n
They said \"significant progress must be made\" in Hong Kong to
\nadvance the WTO's so-called Doha round.<\/p>\n
Counterterrorism, bird flu, energy security and other issues
\nwere dealt with in a separate statement adopted in a cupcake-
\nshaped villa on the South Korean coast named Nurimaru, or
\n\"pinnacle of the world.\" The agreements were announced after the
\nleaders posed for a photo in traditional South Korean silk
\novercoats called durumagi.<\/p>\n
Fears of a possible human pandemic spawned by bird flu have
\ngrown in recent days with China announcing its first human cases.
\nUnder a new bird flu initiative, APEC countries committed to
\nopenness and information sharing, and said they would conduct a
\nsimulation exercise early next year to test responses to a
\npossible pandemic.<\/p>\n
APEC's bird flu plan \"commits our economies to effective
\nsurveillance, transparency and openness, and close domestic,
\nregional and international coordination and collaboration,\" the
\nleaders' statement said.<\/p>\n
Condemning terrorism, the leaders said they would seek to
\ndismantle terrorist groups and counter threats from weapons of
\nmass destruction.<\/p>\n
They also launched an initiative to protect intellectual
\nproperty, seeking to stem counterfeit goods and software piracy,
\nand said they would find ways to offset the effects of high oil
\nprices.<\/p>\n
About 1,000 anti-globalization protesters attempted to march
\nto the meeting venue, but were blocked by security forces and
\ndispersed peacefully after several hours. On Friday, police
\nclashed with activists from a crowd of about 4,000 protesters who
\nfailed to disrupt the meeting.<\/p>\n
The leaders said Saturday that the WTO's Doha round \"must be
\ncarried to a successful conclusion ... by the end of 2006.\"<\/p>\n
Unblocking disputes over agriculture are the key, without
\nwhich \"we cannot make progress in the round as a whole,\" the
\nleaders' statement said. \"Avoiding or compromising our ambition
\non this issue would mean that we would lower expectations for the
\nround as a whole.\"<\/p>\n
Australia and Canada wanted the statement to name Europe as
\nthe main obstacle in the WTO, but other leaders objected because
\nthey didn't want to single out any country or region for
\ncriticism, officials said.<\/p>\n
\"You don't have to name names, it's quite obvious who are the
\npeople\" the statement will be directed at, Philippine Foreign
\nSecretary Alberto Romulo told The Associated Press.<\/p>",
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