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.