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.