ASEAN chief calls for end to APEC summits<\/p>\n
MANILA (AFP): Annual summits of Asia-Pacific leaders should be
\nabolished since they have evolved into a talking shop for issues
\nunrelated to trade, Association of Southeast Asian Nations
\n(ASEAN) Secretary General Rodolfo Severino said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The first Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in
\nSeattle in 1993 had given the forum the necessary \"prominence\",
\nbut Severino said discussions since \"have tended to focus almost
\nexclusively\" on liberalization topics that are of interest only
\nto \"certain developed members.\"<\/p>\n
\"In this light, summits may in fact be a hindrance to progress
\nin the less spectacular but equally important areas of APEC,\"
\nSeverino told delegates to the annual Pacific Economic
\nCooperation Conference here.<\/p>\n
PECC, comprising mostly business leaders and academics, is the
\nprivate-sector counterpart of APEC, which was set up to abolish
\ntrade barriers among its members.<\/p>\n
Severino said the gatherings of APEC leaders raised
\n\"expectations enormously\" which served to intensify \"pressure for
\ndramatic breakthroughs.\"<\/p>\n
He also noted that in the past three years, APEC forums were
\ndominated by non-trade issues -- the Asian financial crisis in
\n1997, the arrest of Malaysia's former deputy premier Anwar
\nIbrahim in 1998, and the East Timor crisis this year.<\/p>\n
The 21-member APEC \"may find itself able to dispense with the
\nannual summit and return to the system of its first four years,\"
\nwhen the annual events were at the ministerial level, the ASEAN
\nchief said.<\/p>\n
But Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon stressed that
\nAPEC summits gave leaders an \"opportunity for exchanges\" which
\ncircumvented bureaucratic channels.<\/p>\n
\"These meetings of APEC contributed on very serious political
\nproblems,\" Siazon said.<\/p>\n
He said they also served as an invaluable venue for the
\npresident of the United States to visit the region and meet his
\ncounterparts.<\/p>\n
\"You need the American president to focus on East Asia at
\nleast once a year,\" Siazon said, noting that political stability
\nwas an essential bulwark for economic development.<\/p>\n
Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos acknowledged that APEC
\n\"seems strangely unresponsive and less dynamic\" than it used to,
\nbut stressed that political and security issues were integral to
\ntrade discussions.<\/p>\n
Instead of discussing non-related topics in an \"ad hoc and
\ninformal\" way, Ramos said APEC should \"formalize\" the process by
\nholding three ministerial meetings on trade, finance and security
\nleading to the leaders' summit.<\/p>\n
For his part, former Australian prime minister Robert Hawke
\nsaid governments should realize that APEC's role had evolved into
\none that could be called \"association of productive exchange in
\nconflict.\"<\/p>\n
Unlike Ramos, however, Hawke said it was best not to formalize
\nthe process since that could be \"counterproductive\".
\nAPEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong,
\nIndonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines,
\nPapua New Guinea, Russia, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,
\nThailand, the United States and Vietnam.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asean-chief-calls-for-end-to-apec-summits-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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