Steep road to Osaka<\/p>\n
Issues that the Bogor APEC forum brushed over may come back
\nto haunt Asia-Pacific leaders when they meet in Japan later this
\nyear. Martin Khor reports for Inter Press Service.<\/p>\n
PENANG, Malaysia: The next meeting of the Asia-Pacific
\nEconomic Cooperation forum is still seven months away, but
\nmember-countries are already scrambling to prepare for it.<\/p>\n
This is because the specifics of a free trade plan struck in
\nBogor, Indonesia last November are expected to be hammered out at
\nthis year's meeting in Osaka, and analysts predict clashes
\nbetween one side led by the United States and the other headed by
\nMalaysia.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem is that most APEC economies have hardly
\nhad the time to do the sophisticated task of calculating the
\npluses and minuses of trade liberalization -- especially since
\nthe `region' within which this process will take place includes
\ndeveloped economies such as that of Japan and the United States.<\/p>\n
And now there are rising fears among analysts and activists in
\nAPEC developing economies that there would be moves in Osaka to
\nextend `free trade' to `free trade area', and `non-binding'
\ncommitment to `legally binding' agreement.<\/p>\n
APEC groups together Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
\nChina, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines,
\nThailand, Mexico, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand
\nthe United States and Canada.<\/p>\n
Last November, the leaders of the 18 APEC member economies
\nmeeting in Bogor adopted a declaration calling for the
\nestablishment of free trade among themselves by the year 2010 for
\ndeveloped nations and 2020 for developing countries.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the U.S. played the most active role in
\npushing for a free trade area to be set up, and for
\nliberalization of trade, services and investments.<\/p>\n
But some of the developing countries led by Malaysia were
\nalarmed by the rapid rate at which APEC was being
\ninstitutionalized and being moved along the road toward a free
\ntrade area.<\/p>\n
At Malaysia's insistence, the Bogor Declaration included an
\nannex that said the target dates for liberalization were not
\nlegally binding. Kuala Lumpur has argued that trade
\nliberalization should be done unilaterally, commensurate with
\neach country's development level and capacity.<\/p>\n
In the last few months, however, the U.S. has proved to be as
\ntenacious as Malaysia regarding its stance on where APEC should
\nbe headed.<\/p>\n
At a WorldNet dialogue session in February in Kuala Lumpur,
\nthe U.S. coordinator for APEC, Sandra Kristoff, made it clear her
\ncountry will push hard for the acceptance of the liberalization
\ndatelines.<\/p>\n
She said Washington's understanding of the Bogor Declaration
\nwas that the forthcoming Osaka meeting should have an ambitious
\nand bold action agenda to speedily launch the free trade plan.<\/p>\n
\"We have to be bold,\" Kristoff said. \"While we agree that the
\nagenda for trade liberalization must be balanced, we cannot
\nmistake balance with timidness. (The year) 2010 is our goal. Some
\nnations may need longer and can take until 2020.\"<\/p>\n
She added that this 15-25 year period allowed \"plenty of room
\nfor pragmatism\".<\/p>\n
But to many analysts, the pace of APEC's progression itself
\nhas been astonishing. Initiated by Australia, the grouping
\nstarted in the late 1980s supposedly as an informal and
\nunstructured gathering of economies.<\/p>\n
By 1993, leaders of the member-economies gathered in Seattle
\nfor the forum's first meeting. Months after, a report by APEC's
\nEminent Persons Group had a proposal for a free trade area in the
\nAsia-Pacific.<\/p>\n
The Bogor Declaration deliberately left out details due to the
\nreservations of countries like Malaysia and China.<\/p>\n
The implications for the developing economies within APEC are
\nenormous, especially since the Uruguay Round of the General
\nAgreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) expanded the concept of
\nfree trade to include not only trade in manufactures, but also in
\nagriculture and services.<\/p>\n
It now also covers the granting of intellectual property
\nprotection to transnational companies, a measure that many
\nactivists say is protectionist and goes counter to the principle
\nof liberalization.<\/p>\n
Analysts point out that countries like the U.S. have
\ninstruments that they use to attain extra trade concessions.<\/p>\n
One example of these measures is the so-called Super 301 that
\nthe U.S. has either applied or threatened to use on countries
\nsuch as China, Thailand, India, Brazil and even Japan, all of
\nwhich Washington deemed to have inadequately complied with the
\nrequirements of U.S. firms.<\/p>\n
Indeed, there lurks a suspicion that APEC may be used to get
\nAsian countries to make concessions in trade, services,
\ninvestments and intellectual property, beyond those made through
\nthe Uruguay Round.<\/p>\n
Some Asian governments are also wary that Washington is keen
\nto get APEC off the ground as a regional free trade arrangement
\nand be a counterweight to the European Union, which is currently
\nthe largest and most powerful regional economic bloc.<\/p>\n
Some analysts say the APEC process can be seen as parallel to
\nhow Washington brought the Americas into its orbit.<\/p>\n
First, there was the North American Free Trade Agreement
\n(NAFTA). This led to a larger liberalization process involving
\nalmost all South American countries, whose leaders attended a
\nmeeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton at Miami last December.<\/p>\n
APEC, experts argue, would bring the Asia-Pacific countries
\nconcerned closer to the U.S. circuit, thus giving U.S. firms a
\nheadstart over Europe.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. scoffs at such charges, and Kristoff during the
\nWorldNet dialogue denied that the United States was trying to
\npush APEC to move faster than any of its members could handle.<\/p>\n
She told a panel that included representatives from Malaysia,
\nJapan and South Korea: \"Nothing in the U.S. posture suggests we
\nare trying to take NAFTA and extending it westward across the
\nPacific.\"<\/p>\n
-- IPS<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/steep-road-to-osaka-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }