APEC agrees to simplify customs procedures

APEC agrees to simplify customs procedures

MANILA (Agencies): Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have agreed to simplify and harmonize customs procedures to ease trade and investment flows, a senior Philippine official said yesterday.

Antonio Basilio, deputy chairman of an APEC senior officials' meeting being held in Manila, said the measures would help lower the costs of doing business in the region.

"Most of the collective actions are in the nature of business facilitation measures which will have the effect of lowering the cost of doing business," Basilio was quoted by Reuters as saying.

He said APEC was also compiling a database on customs information which includes the applied tariff rates for all products being traded by its 18 member economies.

The first version of the database will be available next year and in 1998 will be expanded to contain information on customs procedures and non-tariff measures.

Basilio said APEC members were also working on setting up an electronic system to by 1999 to process imports and exports.

Meanwhile, officials said that a U.S. proposal to free trade in information technology by 2000 has won broad outline support from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Senior APEC officials told AFP there was a consensus on the need for the U.S.-proposed Information Technology Agreement (ITA) during an APEC Committee on Trade and Investment which met Thursday evening.

But he and other APEC officials said details of the accord such as the products to be covered by the ITA as well as the time frame will be discussed later.

"The agreement is that there should be an ITA," a southeast Asian delegate who attended the committee meeting said.

A Filipino delegate, who attended the meeting, confirmed the Southeast Asian official's statement, saying the United States was able to convince skeptics about the need for an ITA.

Senior APEC officials are attending a three-day meeting which started here Friday to hammer out outline agreement on regional free trade goals and other issues ahead of an APEC summit in the Philippines next month.

Formal approval

Despite the broad support, Antonio Basilio, deputy chairman of the senior officials' meeting, told a news briefing said he did not expect the ITA to be formally approved before the APEC summit.

Basilio said there was "greater understanding, more receptivity" among APEC members to the proposal and that the ITA has been scheduled for discussion on Saturday.

The U.S. proposal calls for a "phased reduction" of all tariffs on information technology products, now ranging from zero to 60 percent, to eliminate them by January 1,2000.

Items covered would include computer hardware like parts and accessories, semiconductors and integrated circuits, computer software, telecommunications equipment and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

A U.S. document circulated to officials here said agreement on the ITA in APEC would serve as a "strong impetus" for further liberalization in the sector at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Singapore next month.

"We are happy with the discussions we are having this week," John Wolfe, Washington's coordinator and ambassador to APEC, told AFP.

APEC sources said Washington wanted a consensus on the ITA reached before the WTO ministerial meeting in Singapore, saying it wanted to present the deal as a model for a global accord on information technology.

The U.S. proposal acknowledged that "there may be costs especially for the less developed of APEC economies" in the near term but stressed that "in the medium and longer terms, the benefits are significant."

It added that a consensus on the ITA would be a "win-win situation for APEC economies."

Some developing APEC economies had earlier expressed caution over the U.S. proposal, citing the disparity between the rich and developing APEC members.

APEC operates through a consensus, meaning all 18 members must agree on a policy before it is deemed approved. All agreements reached by the senior officials are to be recommended to the APEC leaders for final approval.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.