APEC to set up group for settling disputes

APEC to set up group for settling disputes

TOKYO (AFP): The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreed yesterday to set up a working group to develop procedures for settling regional trade disputes, Japanese news agencies reported.

The reports said the agreement was reached at a meeting of the group's trade and investment committee in the southern city of Fukuoka.

The committee will meet again Saturday before a three-day meeting of senior APEC officials in Fukuoka next week, the first of a series of high-level talks before the group's annual ministerial meeting and summit in Osaka in November.

Leaders from the 18-member group agreed at last year's informal summit in Indonesia to examine the possibility of a "dispute mediation service" to supplement existing procedures within the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"Trade and other economic disputes among APEC economies have negative implications for the implementation of agreed cooperative arrangements as well as for the spirit of cooperation," the leaders said in a joint declaration.

But the APEC leaders, including US President Bill Clinton, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, said the WTO should continue to be the "primary channel" for solving disputes.

Jiji Press reported earlier yesterday that a Japanese initiative to promote regional economic cooperation and development was facing reservations from other members of the 18- member group, set up five years ago.

The news agency quoted informed sources as saying that some countries expressed "reluctance" towards the Japanese "partners for progress" initiative at a separate meeting of the APEC economic committee in Fukuoka.

While it was not immediately clear which countries took a negative position, the news agency noted that the United States puts greater emphasis on promoting regional free trade rather than economic cooperation. The economic committee agreed that the issue should be raised at next week's meeting, Jiji said.

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