APEC ministers seek restart of trade talks
APEC ministers seek restart of trade talks
Dirk Beveridge, Associated Press, Bangkok
Linking the threat of terror to the future of their economies,
Pacific Rim leaders heeded U.S. warnings on Saturday to strictly
control the production and sale of portable anti-aircraft
missiles capable of shooting down civilian aircraft.
They also made an urgent call for the restart of global trade
negotiations now in disarray and discussed how to beat the danger
of bioterrorism and the feared return of SARS.
The officials from 21 APEC economies wrapped up two days of
talks, laying out an agenda for a summit of world leaders that is
leaning heavily on the fight against terrorism even though the
group's stated goal is to boost trade and investment. They warned
that prosperity is threatened by violent extremism as well as
disease outbreaks like SARS.
The ministers "renewed their commitment to stable economic
growth in the Asia Pacific region based on an open multilateral
trading system," said a joint statement at the end of the
meeting.
Earlier U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday's
heads of government meeting will focus on security issues more
than ever.
"Business leaders will invest where they believe not only
their investment is safe, but their property and their employees
are safe," he said. "People will only go and tour in places and
spend money in places where they feel that they are secure."
Saturday's joint statement by the trade and foreign ministers
called on the World Trade Organization to restart international
trade negotiations that collapsed in the Mexican resort of Cancun
last month when many developing nations walked out.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum has no formal ties
with the Geneva-based body that sets global trading rules, but it
includes some of the biggest WTO members, including China, Japan
and the United States.
The Cancun impasse, the ministers said, was "a missed
opportunity to make real progress on trade liberalization and to
provide a boost for developing economies and their rural poor."
They rejected calls for a total ban on portable antiaircraft
missiles, apparently because of hurting their own arms
industries, but welcomed the new restrictions.
"These are missiles that could be used at any airport in any
country of the world to bring down a passenger liner and create
literally hundreds of lives lost," said New Zealand foreign
minister Phil Goff, who flew into Bangkok following news reports
that several such missiles had been smuggled into Thailand.