APEC a triumph for the Asian way

APEC a triumph for the Asian way

By Alistair McIntosh

MANILA (Reuter): Whatever else was achieved at the annual APEC extravaganza, which has just ended in Manila, it signaled a triumph for the Asian way.

And whatever defects the Asian way might have, participants and analysts on Tuesday were almost unanimous in believing that it will work to turn APEC's goals into reality.

Despite U.S. President Bill Clinton's direct personal lobbying efforts, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum failed to deliver unequivocal endorsement of a U.S. proposal for a united APEC front on information technology products.

While the 18 leaders agreed to back efforts to achieve tariff- freed trade in computers and software by 2000 at the World Trade Organization, they also ensured they had a get-out clause by emphasizing the need for "flexibility".

"The fact that each nation -- even Papua New Guinea -- can basically blackball any APEC decision is an effective way to at least frustrate the United States," University of the Philippines political science professor Alex Magno said in an interview.

As one Singaporean diplomat put it months before Monday's summit, APEC was being used to "tame" the U.S. preference for direct, confrontational methods.

Nor was there any hint APEC might move away from its voluntary, consensual approach to a more formal, legally-binding structure used in other trade groupings such as the European Union.

Efforts by non-governmental groups to get APEC to lay greater stress on democracy were also diluted into vague commitments to foster "development with a human face".

These efforts were personally backed by summit host President Fidel Ramos of the Philippines, who has guided his nation to an economic renaissance without having to restrain the Filipino appetite for frenzied democracy.

Almost every other country in Asia is far less enthusiastic about human rights and democracy.

Even the issue of expanding APEC's membership was hampered by concerns that making it any bigger would damage the grouping's cosy, tea-house atmosphere.

But this consensual approach and its emphasis on the virtues of face-to-face contact and the building up of trust are likely to produce the desired results -- setting up the world's biggest free trade region by the year 2020.

"The APEC process lends itself to strong progress," said Philippine APEC delegate Edsel Custodio, assistant trade secretary, pointing out that APEC made more progress in one year in reducing tariffs than global trade talks did in nearly a decade.

There was one major note of caution, however, sounded by Edgardo Boeninger, Chilean chairman of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).

Boeninger, in a quick assessment of the 1996 summit on Tuesday, said it was vital that nations should not be allowed to replace tariff barriers with non-tariff obstacles such as elaborate bureaucratic procedures.

"This is something we have to be very careful in avoiding," he said.