APEC said to pressure U.S. on linking trade and rights
APEC said to pressure U.S. on linking trade and rights
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Pacific Rim countries will press the United States to stop linking trade to labor and social issues when Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers meet in Indonesia in October, Malaysia said yesterday.
The trade ministers' meeting, which precedes an APEC summit in Indonesia, will be used to deliver the message that linking trade to labor and social issues creates new barriers against cheap imports from developing countries, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz told reporters.
Some Asian countries within APEC have individually told the United States to stop linking trade with other issues.
According to Rafidah, trade ministers from the 16-member APEC group will also discuss the recently signed GATT treaty at the Oct. 6-8 meeting in Jakarta.
APEC members include the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the six members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
ASEAN has been particularly vocal in its opposition to the inclusion of labor and social clauses in the work program of the World Trade Organization (WTO), set up with the formal signing of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Morocco on April 15.
It has also criticized Washington for connecting trade with human rights issues in China.
Rafidah, who met her ASEAN counterparts at an informal meeting in the Genting Highlands hill resort outside Kuala Lumpur over the weekend, said other issues to be discussed by APEC trade ministers include the phasing out of the Multi-Fiber Agreement, intellectual property rights and opening up the financial services sector.
The second APEC summit, following the first in Seattle last year, is to be held in November on the Indonesian island of Bali. Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who snubbed the first summit, has said he will attend.
Malaysia is strongly opposed to proposals turning APEC into a more formal institution, or even a Pacific Community, as envisioned by Australia, one of APEC's founders.