Consensus reached at APEC<\/p>\n
By Endy M. Bayuni<\/p>\n
OSAKA, Japan (JP): APEC ministers reached a consensus
\nyesterday on how the 18 member-countries should phase out all
\ntrade barriers in the region, overcoming a number of contentious
\npoints that had been the subject of heated controversy.<\/p>\n
\"We have reached a consensus,\" Coordinating Minister for
\nIndustry and Trade Hartarto, Indonesia's chief delegate to the
\nministerial conference of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
\n(APEC) forum, told Indonesian journalists.<\/p>\n
Hartarto declined to go into the details of APEC's Action
\nAgenda, but said the two free trade deadlines, 2010 for developed
\nmember-economies and 2020 for developing economies, remain
\nunchanged. \"That's the most important thing,\" he added.<\/p>\n
\"Now the (APEC) ministers finally can present a clean action
\nagenda to the leaders,\" Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs
\nAli Alatas said, referring to this Sunday's informal meeting of
\nAPEC leaders here.<\/p>\n
Hartarto, who has been hopeful of an agreement all along,
\nattributed the result to the positive attitude of the ministers.
\n\"Everyone wanted this conference to succeed,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Four principles in the Action Agenda -- comprehensiveness,
\ncomparability, flexibility and non-discrimination -- were agreed
\nwithin a matter of hours of deliberations by the ministers
\nyesterday, the first day of their two-day conference.<\/p>\n
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China had earlier objected to
\n\"comprehensiveness\", seeking special treatment for sensitive
\nsectors, particularly agriculture, under trade liberalization
\nmeasures.<\/p>\n
As a compromise, flexibility was agreed on, but without
\naltering the deadlines.<\/p>\n
Some countries had opposed the inclusion of the principle of
\ncomparability in the way each individual member dismantles its
\ntrade barriers, pointing out that APEC's decisions are not
\nbinding.<\/p>\n
The United States had objected to the principle of non-
\ndiscrimination because it would mean having to automatically
\ngrant trade privileges to China, even though the latter is not a
\nmember of the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor hailed the agreement
\nreached by the ministers.<\/p>\n
\"We have one. It's a good one. It's been unanimously adopted
\nand we will recommend it to the leaders,\" Kantor was quoted by
\nReuters as saying after the conference.<\/p>\n
\"We have really taken another giant step forward in APEC,\" he
\nsaid. He added: \"We're moving forward in the fastest growing
\nregion of the world.\"<\/p>\n
Reservations<\/p>\n
There may be some reservations, however, as indicated by China
\nto the press.<\/p>\n
Chinese officials said the wording of the non-discrimination
\nprinciple was too vague to resolve the U.S.-China wrangle over
\nthe preferential trading terms which Washington grants to
\nBeijing.<\/p>\n
\"We are pleased that some consensus, some agreements against
\ndiscriminatory trade, have been made. However, we think that the
\nversion of the non-discrimination text has not fully reflected
\nthe Chinese position,\" a Chinese official said.<\/p>\n
Senior Chinese trade official Long Youngtu was quoted by
\nReuters as saying that APEC ministers had agreed to \"endeavor\" to
\nabide by principles of non-discrimination in all trade matters.<\/p>\n
The wording, he said, was too vague to be binding.<\/p>\n
The Action Agenda is the blueprint for the implementation of
\nthe free trade pledge made by APEC's leaders in their last
\nmeeting in Bogor, Indonesia, last year.<\/p>\n
Alatas said that the wording of the document could still be
\nchanged by the leaders during their one-day retreat on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Yesterday's conference was overshadowed by news from
\nWashington that U.S. President Bill Clinton will not be present
\nat the leadership meeting because of the federal budget
\nconfrontation he faces with Congress. Vice President Al Gore is
\nto take Clinton's place.<\/p>\n
Canadian Premier Jean Chretien and Australian Prime Minister
\nPaul Keating were the first two leaders to arrive for Sunday's
\ninformal meeting.<\/p>\n
Indonesian President Soeharto is scheduled to arrive later
\ntoday, as are most of the other leaders.<\/p>\n
The ministers will continue with their deliberations today,
\nfocusing more on organizational, administrative and budgetary
\nmatters, Alatas said.<\/p>\n
The ministers are scheduled to wind up their conference with a
\ncommunique and a joint press conference.<\/p>\n
Environment -- Page 5<\/p>\n
Hartarto -- Page 8<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/consensus-reached-at-apec-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }