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.