APEC free trade plan needs private sector help
APEC free trade plan needs private sector help
By Endy M. Bayuni
OSAKA, Japan (JP): The success of APEC's plan to move towards a free trade zone in the Asia-Pacific hinges to a large extent on support from the private sector, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto said on Saturday.
Speaking at a symposium on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Hartarto said the benefit of trade liberalization "will be rendered more effective if the private sectors among the APEC members create synergy."
"Private sector participation in the APEC process should not be focused merely on its direct involvement in APEC fora, but also directed in promoting synergy among business players in the region," he said.
The one-day symposium was jointly organized by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Pacific Basin Economic Council, both institutions that have contributed to the development of APEC and its programs.
On Sunday, APEC leaders meeting here were scheduled to endorse an "Action Agenda" setting out the details of how APEC's 18 members plan to go about in moving towards establishing a region of free trade by the year 2020 at the latest.
One of the outcomes of last week's APEC ministerial conference was a plan to establish an APEC Business Advisory Council which will formally bring the private sector into the APEC's processes for the first time.
"With the adoption of the 'Action Agenda' ... the participation of the business sectors in the APEC process even becomes more urgent than ever before," Hartarto said.
He also pointed out that greater synergy among APEC's private sectors would also help the effort in narrowing economic disparities among APEC members and lead to better allocation of economic resources within the region.
Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, in the same symposium, said APEC has spent the last six years on exchanging information, analyzing issues, formulating objectives and crafting frameworks for action.
"None of that time has been wasted; none of that effort was unnecessary. But it is now time to really start getting the runs on the board -- delivering the benefits which APEC is eminently capable of generating," Evans said.
Gains
He said Australia has conducted studies estimating the potential gains to be had from trade liberalization and facilitation measures and found that:
* The aggregate income of the region will increase by 3.8 percent, or US$745 billion, which is more than the combined current size of Australia's and Korea's economies, more than 10 times Malaysia's and more than a half of China's.
* Trade facilitation alone will increase aggregate income in the region by 2.2 percent, or $442 billion.
Acknowledging that some may have doubts about the assumptions used in the economic projections, Evans said "Nobody should be in any doubt that there will be benefits, they will be very large indeed and they will be shared by all of us."
Japanese Minister of International Trade and Industry Ryutaro Hashimoto in his address promised the business community in APEC that trade liberalization is just the start and that other measures that will assist in their business are on the way.
Among examples of works, or study, now underway in APEC, include the possibility of providing a single multiple-visa for the entire APEC region, or the same documentation for patent protection for all APEC countries, a single product standard certification and a single Internet site providing tariff schedules for different products throughout the region.
"Of course, we cannot do all of this overnight. Yet having been involved in the APEC process over the last year, I can tell you that there are already people working on things like this.
"And I can promise you that the Asia-Pacific region will be radically different in five or 10 years from what it is now in terms of business and personal mobility," Hashimoto said.