APEC enlarged in membership, capacities

APEC enlarged in membership, capacities

By Mie Kawashima

TOKYO (Kyodo): Over its short history, the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has grown in membership from
its original 12 members to 18, while its scope has expanded
beyond mere economic consultation into a joint pursuit of free
trade and investment.

APEC began in November 1989 when foreign and trade ministers
from a dozen nations gathered in Canberra in response to calls
from then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke to form a Pacific
Rim economic link in the world's most dynamically developing
region.

These original members were Australia, Canada, Japan, New
Zealand, South Korea and the United States and the six members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Through annual ministerial gatherings and working-level
meetings, the participants discussed cooperation in economic
matters and other areas including education and technology.

APEC announced its aim for more open trade during the third
ministerial meeting in November 1991 in Seoul, where China,
Taiwan and Hong Kong joined its circle.

A drastic change came when U.S. President Bill Clinton
convened the first shirt-sleeve summit meeting in November 1993
in Seattle under the theme of trade and investment
liberalization.

The Seattle meeting, during which Mexico and Papua New Guinea
participated in APEC, resolved to work toward a "community of
Asia-Pacific economies."

The circle will not be "a formal, legal structure, but a
community with shared interests, shared goals and shared
commitment" to economic growth, Clinton said.

A year later in Indonesia, the leaders -- now including one
from the 18th member, Chile -- made the landmark decision to
liberalize trade and investment in the region by the year 2010
for developed economies and by 2020 for developing partners.

Yet the declaration, issued by the leaders in Indonesia's
highland resort of Bogor, failed to state any concrete measures
or procedure to implement the free trade and investment goals.

This November, top-level meetings in the western Japanese
business center of Osaka will have to map out programs to achieve
the free trade and investment drives.

In Osaka, APEC members will hold their seventh ministerial
gathering Nov. 16 and 17 and the third informal summit of heads
of state or government Nov. 19.

However, this expectation is currently facing rough going as
Japan -- this year's chair -- as well as South Korea, China and
Taiwan are seeking to exclude agriculture from the free trade
initiatives.

The other 14 members oppose them and are insisting they stick
to the principle of comprehensive free trade and investment.

Another problem is that Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's hopes
to attend the Osaka unofficial summit meeting while China,
regarding Taiwan as its renegade province, strongly resists this.

China has urged the chairing Japan to permit only an economic
minister from Taiwan to participate in the top-level meeting,
following the Seattle and Bogor precedents.