APEC may set course for trade liberalization

APEC may set course for trade liberalization

CANBERRA (AFP): Leaders of the 18 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries are likely, but not certain, to set a course for regional trade liberalization at their November conference, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said yesterday.

But details of any agreement, including suggested moves to turn the forum into a trading bloc -- preferential or otherwise -- would take years to evolve and mattered little at the moment, he said.

"It is simply not an issue which needs to be finally resolved at this stage," he told reporters here.

Evans was speaking at a news conference attended by Japanese correspondents and AFP on the eve of his departure for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual meeting, at which he will be a dialogue partner.

He said Canberra was attracted by ASEAN's proposal last year that Australia and New Zealand, joined by a formal economic relationship, should join the ASEAN Free Trade Association (AFTA) in expanded market, which would be "a healthy development for the achievement of free trade."

The AFTA plan, which would bring together two economic groupings of equivalent size, was still in an early stage, requiring detailed discussion over a long period and may be discussed in the corridors of the ASEAN meeting.

The six ASEAN nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- are APEC members along with Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and, later this year, Chile.

Bloc

Recent reports have suggested the APEC leaders are to consider a plan to turn the forum into a powerful new trading bloc with some similarities to the original European Common Market.

The proposal, which has the potential to turn APEC into a discriminatory trade bloc, was prepared by APEC's Eminent Persons Group of government appointed politicians and economists responsible for developing a blueprint for its future.

Evans said the proposal dealt with the final shape of a process that had not yet begun and which would take many years to come to fruition.

As a result of agreement at the Seattle leaders' summit last year, APEC was working on its trade facilitation agenda, which includes measures such as mutual recognition of qualifications, investment codes and guidelines producing common rules.

"That is all in place and that work is starting to be done very effectively and in a period of time we'll start to get results," Evans said.

But the move within APEC to get regional free trade had been discussed and was on the agenda for further discussion by the APEC leaders' meeting in Indonesia.

"I think that at the November leaders' meeting, with input from the ministers and input from the Emminent Persons Group, there is a good chance, not absolutely certain, that APEC will move to defining some kind of free-trade objective," he said.