APEC forum vows to reduce economic gap

APEC forum vows to reduce economic gap

CEBU, Philippines (Agencies): The Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum pledged yesterday not just to remove
trade barriers but also to work towards narrowing the economic
gap among members, officials said.

"It is embedded in the APEC principles to reduce disparity in
the region," Philippine Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy
Edsel Custodio told reporters during a four-day meeting of APEC
senior officials in the central Philippine city of Cebu.

"Economic and technical cooperation is an equally important
pillar of APEC, as important as trade and investment
liberalization," Chinese delegation leader Wang Yusheng was
quoted by Reuters as saying.

APEC is potentially the world's biggest and wealthiest
regional trade grouping. But it is also the most diverse, with
advanced economies such as Japan and the United States alongside
less developed countries such as Papua New Guinea.

"We talk aloud about trade and investment liberalization but
quite a lot of members remain underdeveloped," Wang added.

The forum comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua
New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,
Thailand and the United

Fund

The forum also approved yesterday guidelines for selection and
procedures for disbursement of a 10-billion-yen (US$100 million)
fund to be made available by the Japanese government to the
group.

Antonio Basilio, deputy chairman of APEC's Senior Officials
Meeting, was quoted by UPI as saying that the grant has been
earmarked for trade and investment liberalization and
facilitation projects.

It was initially proposed by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama
in the third APEC Summit in Osaka, Japan and has since been
informally called the Murayama Fund.

The seven-year-old APEC hopes to completely open trade and
investments in the region by the year 2010 for industrialized
economies and 2020 for developing economies.

Basilio said the fund would be handled by the APEC secretariat
and applications for its use would be given to them. The
applications would then be forwarded to the budget and
administration committee, which has been tasked to endorse
projects worthy of funding to the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM).

The SOM in Cebu, 350 miles (560 km) south of Manila, is the
second of four such meetings scheduled before the 4th APEC Summit
to be held in November at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone just north
of Manila.

Earlier, the Japanese delegation said the entire $100 million
would not be given to APEC in bulk. It would be disbursed in
tranches, depending on the projects approved by the group.

The delegation said most likely to be funded first is a
seminar on customs evaluation, valued at $300,000. The date and
venue have not been finalized.

Prior to the SOM, related meetings were held since May 17 by
the Sub-committee on Customs and Procedures, Intellectual
Property Rights Group, Experts Group Meeting on Mutual
Recognition Arrangements on Food Products and Sub-committee on
Standards and Conformance.

The Sub-committee on Customs Procedures concluded with the
submission by Canada and Japan of a framework for technical
assistance and human resources development. The framework is
expected to enable the sub-committee to complete a nine-point
action plan that includes the harmonization of tariff structure,
transparency of customs procedures and protection of intellectual
property rights.

The sub-committee has completed a summary report of the
implementation schedules for each economy based on facilitation,
accountability, consistency, transparency and simplification. It
has surpassed all other sub-committees and experts groups in the
accomplishment of tasks, mainly because it has spent more time
with lengthy discussions.

The Asia-Pacific region, with a combined output of $13
trillion, makes up about 56 percent of the world's gross domestic
product and more than 46 percent of the world's total merchandise
trade. About 40 percent of the world's population live in the
region, which occupies 30 percent of the world's land area.