APEC to push for new global trade deal after WTO failure
APEC to push for new global trade deal after WTO failure
Associated Press, Bangkok
Pacific Rim nations must push harder for a new global trade deal,
officials said on Tuesday as they opened their annual meeting by
pondering ways to restart World Trade Organization (WTO) talks
that recently collapsed in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The failure in Cancun makes it "even more important" for APEC
members to urge the WTO forward on a round of talks intended to
lift the fortunes of nations rich and poor, Thai Foreign Ministry
spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after senior officials from
the 21 member economies met here all day.
The officials focused on economic issues including
multilateral trading systems on Tuesday and planned to discuss
counter-terrorism on Wednesday, a U.S. delegate said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
While this year's tightly-guarded gathering of the Asia-
Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is expected to tackle dramatic
global issues like the Iraq crisis, the war on terror and nuclear
fears on the Korean peninsula, trade liberalization remains the
core issue for APEC.
The start of the APEC meeting, which concludes next week with
a leaders' summit, was accompanied early Tuesday by local
political squabbling as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
confirmed that the WTO chief - a Thai who comes from an
opposition party - had not been invited.
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi was conspicuously
missing from the official guest list at the meeting on his home
turf and Thai newspapers speculated the reason might be
Supachai's political differences with Thaksin.
They are from opposing parties and Supachai served as commerce
minister in a previous government.
Thaksin confirmed that Supachai had not been invited and told
reporters they had not even met since Supachai took charge of the
WTO.
"I requested to meet him but there was no reply - I don't know
why," Thaksin said.
Thaksin said the APEC leaders, including U.S. President George
W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, would "give priority" to
restarting the WTO talks "because the world is watching what APEC
can do after the Cancun failure."
The omission of Supachai "has raised speculation among APEC
members about whether Thai politics has taken precedence over
this high-level meeting, or the government has little appetite
for building a global economic multilateral system. Or both," a
leading Thai newspaper, The Nation, said in a front-page story.
APEC's stated goal is for free trade and investment among
developed members by 2010, and among developing economies by
2020.
Hundreds of policemen secured the Queen Sirikit Convention
Center where the meeting is taking place, with delegates,
journalists and staff checked thoroughly before being let inside
after passing through metal detectors.
With many nations in the region still working hard to bounce
back from the SARS crisis, officials agreed on Tuesday that APEC
members must set up better coordination among their health care
systems to fight back against any repeat outbreaks or against
other epidemics, Sihasak said.
Details would be worked out later, he said.