APEC upbeat on trade deadline<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (Reuter): A senior Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
\n(APEC) official said yesterday the group would meet its 1997
\ndeadline for beginning the move to free trade among its 18
\nmembers, even though much remained to be done.<\/p>\n
APEC executive director Armando Madamba said a summit of the
\ngroup's leaders to be held in the Philippines in November was
\nlikely to endorse a plan on how to implement the free trade pact.<\/p>\n
"I don't see really any kind of discontinuity. As a matter of
\nfact, what you can see here is really a vision being translated
\ninto reality in 1997," he told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
He ruled out last-minute surprises in Manila, but stressed a
\nlot still had to be done before the meeting.<\/p>\n
"The Osaka Action Agenda sets out certain goals for all the
\nmember economies to try to achieve and to try to put the Osaka
\nagenda into a more specific action plan," said Madamba, a former
\nsenior Philippine military officer.<\/p>\n
"So in that respect, the fact that there has been a general
\nagreement on that Action Agenda, I don't know where surprises
\nwill come out from.<\/p>\n
"I think the greater concern is the question of time and
\nconcern to put this action plan together because there is really
\na lot of work now to be done," he said.<\/p>\n
The group adopted an Action Agenda at meetings in Osaka, Japan
\nlast November which identified nine principles as the basis for
\ntrade liberalization "to achieve the long-term goal of free and
\nopen trade and investment" by 2010 for industrialized APEC
\neconomies and 2020 for its developing economies.<\/p>\n
Members also agreed to take more than 100 steps in 15 trade
\nareas before the Philippines summit.<\/p>\n
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong
\nKong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
\nGuinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
\nand the United States.<\/p>\n
Madamba said the Manila gathering would be a climax of a four-
\nyear effort to translate a free-trade vision for one of the
\nworld's largest trading groups into a reality.<\/p>\n
"There is a momentum, the continuity that you can sense, from
\nthe first time the leaders met in Blake's Island (in the United
\nStates), what they have done in Bogor (Indonesia), in Osaka and
\nnow in 1996," he said.<\/p>\n
"We will see a lot of motion, a lot of projects getting
\nimplemented after the Manila summit...these action plans are
\nsupposed to be really getting into implementation phase beginning
\n1997," he added.<\/p>\n
There are skeptics within the grouping, principally Malaysia,
\nbut Madamba did not appear to be worried.<\/p>\n
"APEC, as a forum, has been very transparent. Whatever you see
\nis what you get. Ultimately, I think the proof of APEC is what it
\nachieves," he said.<\/p>\n
Madamba, who is based in Singapore, also said APEC ministers
\nwould discuss this year whether to end a three-year moratorium on
\nmembership imposed in 1993.<\/p>\n
Several countries such as Sri Lanka and India have applied to
\njoin.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/apec-upbeat-on-trade-deadline-1447893297",
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