Asia-Pacific turmoil shadows free-trade talks<\/p>\n
AUCKLAND (AFP): Asia-Pacific trading powers braced Monday for
\nhigh-security free trade talks overshadowed by delicate China-US
\nrelations, crisis in East Timor and tension on the Korean
\nPeninsula.<\/p>\n
Trade officials from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic
\nCooperation (APEC) forum were flying into the New Zealand
\nbusiness capital on the eve of a week's meetings to be protected
\nby about 6,000 police and troops,<\/p>\n
The officials were to spend two days hammering out a
\ndeclaration for their political masters to help propel APEC
\nmembers further along the road to becoming a tariff-free region
\nby 2020.<\/p>\n
Ministerial meetings take place Sept 9-10, followed by a
\nsummit of the APEC leaders September 12-13, including US
\nPresident Bill Clinton, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian
\nPremier Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
But the negotiations have already been shoved out of the
\nlimelight by China's efforts to get US approval for its entry
\ninto the World Trade Organization and by turmoil elsewhere in the
\nAsia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Jiang and Clinton are to hold a landmark meeting on the
\nsidelines of the APEC leaders' summit here -- their first
\nencounter since NATO warplanes bombed Beijing's embassy in
\nBelgrade on May 7 killing three Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
\"We are interested in moving forward in our relations with
\nChina,\" a US official told AFP. \"The Chinese were quite upset in
\nthe wake of the bombing of their embassy and they asked that
\ncertain discussions be held off.\"<\/p>\n
But China's efforts to enter the World Trade Organization
\nwould now be discussed at the technical level in Auckland ahead
\nof the Clinton-Jiang summit, said the official.<\/p>\n
U.S. approval of China's WTO membership bid is critical to
\nallowing the world's most-populous nation to join a landmark
\n\"millennium round\" of trade talks to be kicked off in Seattle in
\nNovember.<\/p>\n
\"If China and the U.S. are able to make progress on the WTO
\nthen that is an advance of trade,\" the U.S. official said.<\/p>\n
He noted that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth
\ntold journalists in Australia earlier that Washington hoped the
\nsummit would mark \"significant progress on WTO,\" ideally ending
\nwith an agreement.<\/p>\n
Chinese officials were also expected to raise at the summit
\ntheir anger at Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's July 9 call for a
\n\"special state-to-state relationship\" with Beijing. China regards
\nTaiwan as a renegade province.<\/p>\n
Officials have said the violence tearing through East Timor
\nwould be discussed in Auckland, probably at the level of foreign
\nministers.<\/p>\n
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy has said his
\nofficials contacted the United States, Australia and New Zealand
\nas a first step towards organizing a special meeting on East
\nTimor.<\/p>\n
A Canadian official here said details had yet to be worked
\nout.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, anti-independence militiamen attacked camps and
\nclinics housing thousands of refugees in East Timor as the United
\nNations began evacuating staff after last week's overwhelming
\nvote rejecting Indonesian rule.<\/p>\n
Officials say North Korea is also on the agenda for an
\nunprecedented trilateral summit between Japan, South Korea and
\nthe United States.<\/p>\n
The meeting would follow U.S.-North Korean talks which are to
\nresume in Berlin September 7-11 with a meeting between US special
\nenvoy Charles Kartman and North Korean vice foreign minister Kim
\nGye-Gwan.<\/p>\n
North Korea test-fired a medium-range Taepodong I ballistic
\nmissile over Japanese territory on August 31 last year. Growing
\nfears of a new launch, this time of a longer-range Taepodong II,
\nhave eased after Pyongyang conceded the possibility of talks over
\nthe missile concerns.<\/p>\n
APEC, whose members account for about half of world trade, is
\nto review progress in its goal of tearing down tariff and
\ninvestment barriers by 2010 for advanced members and by 2020 for
\nthe rest.<\/p>\n
It also expects to issue non-binding principles to make Asia-
\nPacific markets more transparent, insulating them against a fresh
\noutbreak of the financial crisis that erupted in the region in
\nJuly 1997.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asia-pacific-turmoil-shadows-free-trade-talks-1447893297",
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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