APEC officials leave key issues for Manila summit

APEC officials leave key issues for Manila summit

MANILA (Reuter); APEC officials due to begin this week their last meeting before a summit in November will leave several contentious topics for their leaders to resolve, such as expanding the group's membership, officials said yesterday.

Federico Macaranas, who will chair the officials' meeting starting on Friday, voiced confidence at a news conference that most preparatory work would be completed ahead of the summit starting in the town of Subic north of Manila on Nov. 25.

This week's meeting will fine tune the individual members' action plans to be submitted by the 18 member economies.

These plans are commitments by members to change their trade and investment rules so that the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum's goal of free trade is met.

Macaranas, who is Philippine undersecretary for foreign affairs, said among issues that would be left to the leaders was the admission of new members to the group.

Countries or territories that have applied for membership are India, Macau, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Panama.

Macaranas said another issue on which senior officials might not be able to agree was on the United States demand that APEC should make a common stand before the World Trade Organization (WTO) on trading rules for information technology products.

The United States wants APEC countries to adopt zero tariffs on information technology products but APEC officials say the U.S. proposal is vague and does not specify the products.

This senior officials' meeting will be the fourth and last this year before APEC leaders meet in Subic.

APEC ministers are due to meet for two days beginning November 22 when a draft Manila Action Plan for 1996 will be finalized, before it is presented for approval to the leaders.

APEC's goal is to free trade and investments completely in the region by year 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and the United States.