U.S. official grilled over high tech plan<\/p>\n
MANILA (AFP): Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene
\nBarshefsky came under sharp questioning here Saturday after what
\nappeared to be a clear U.S. climbdown on a high tech trade
\nproposal.<\/p>\n
Barshefsky insisted the United States had never sought an
\nagreement from its partners in the Asia-Pacific Economic
\nCooperation (APEC) forum for zero tariffs by 2000 on information
\ntechnology products.<\/p>\n
Instead, she said, Washington had merely wanted strong APEC
\nsupport for a campaign to have a tariff-cutting agreement ready
\nfor endorsement at a ministerial meeting of the World Trade
\nOrganization in Singapore next month.<\/p>\n
But members of her staff and other U.S. officials had
\npreviously left little doubt the U.S. objective at the just-
\nconcluded APEC ministerial meeting here had indeed been a firm
\nagreement specifying zero tariffs by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n
What finally emerged from the ministers, after days of intense
\nwrangling among the 18 APEC members, was a statement \"recognizing
\nthe importance of the information technology sector in world
\ntrade\" and an endorsement of \"the efforts of the WTO to conclude
\nan information technology agreement by the Singapore ministerial
\nconference.\"<\/p>\n
For more than a few journalists and observers such bland
\nwordage amounted to a setback for Washington, or at the very
\nleast a disappointment.<\/p>\n
Not so, argued Barshefsky, who maintained the text had been
\nunanimously approved and did not represent a delicately wrought
\nconsensus.<\/p>\n
\"The endorsement today by APEC members looking to conclude an
\ninformation technology agreement is an extremely important step,\"
\nshe told reporters.<\/p>\n
\"This unanimity was our primary objective... The clear
\nintention of the ministerial statement will provide a very
\nsignificant boost to ongoing negotiations in Geneva.\"<\/p>\n
Geneva is home to the WTO and where negotiators are preparing
\na draft agreement to be presented in Singapore.<\/p>\n
While the United States would like to see tariffs cut back to
\nzero by 2000, according to Barshefsky, it is in fact the job of
\nWTO working groups in Geneva to rule on such details as product
\ncoverage and deadlines.<\/p>\n
\"The United States has never proposed to this meeting zero
\ntariffs by 2000, \" she said, the key U.S. objective having been
\nto stimulate momentum to reach an agreement by Singapore next
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
Yet just this week U.S. trade officials in background
\nbriefings did not correct journalists operating under the clear
\nimpression that Washington's APEC goal had been an endorsement of
\nzero tariffs by 2000.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, on Nov. 13, U.S. coordinator for APEC John Wolf,
\naccording to a transcript prepared in Washington and released by
\nthe U.S. embassy in Singapore, said the following: \"APEC serves
\nas a catalyst for liberalizing the world trading system.<\/p>\n
\"This year we hope that APEC leaders will endorse an
\ninformation technology agreement to eliminate all tariffs in that
\ncrucial sector by the year 2000.\"<\/p>\n
When a reporter at Saturday's media conference read a similar
\nassessment of U.S. intentions from Winston Lord, another senior
\nState Department Asia specialist, Barshefsky suggested he was
\nmerely \"describing what the ITA (information technology
\nagreement) is.\"<\/p>\n
The agreement would cover products such as semiconductors and
\nsoftware, a market where APEC nations account for 80 percent of
\nglobal trade.<\/p>\n
Exports of information technology products were worth half a
\ntrillion dollars in 1995, according to U.S. officials, and will be
\nvalued at $800 billion by 2000.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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