APEC vehicle towards trans-Pacific community
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is a vehicle for Asia to define itself in trans-Pacific terms, not just East Asia regional terms, a U.S. administration official says.
The U.S. must remain engaged with the region and build a trans-Pacific community infrastructure if it is to successfully face the economic challenges of the post-Cold War world, said Sandra Kristoff, Senior Director for Asia-Pacific Economic Affairs at the National Security Council.
Kristoff made the statement earlier this year at a seminar on the challenge of creating a regional economy in East Asia.
Kristoff said APEC is central to U.S. economic policy in Asia for five reasons. APEC provides an opportunity for the United States to build on existing regional integration trends and to use those trends to help foster global integration efforts, she said.
She pointed out that APEC complements the GATT Uruguay Round multilateral trade liberalization initiatives in Geneva and contributes to the fight against recurrent tendencies toward protectionism worldwide.
Second, Kristoff said, APEC is an appropriate forum in which to explore trade arrangements such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), or between either of those two and the Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) treaty.
U.S. role
APEC is also the ideal format to expand the role of the U.S. in the region, Kristoff noted, adding that this will draw the nation into better trade relations with its partners.
"APEC is the best vehicle that exists for anchoring the United States in the region," she said. "This allows it to negotiate win-win solutions with its trading partners instead of relying on aggressive unilateral U.S. trade laws."
APEC also serves as a focal point for the emerging economic infrastructure in the region, Kristoff believes. These linkages and networks traverse telecommunications, transportation, energy and environmental concerns and are helping forge the new trans- Pacific identity for the region, and one where U.S. business and U.S. policy should be involved.
The final aspect is that APEC, with an established secretariat in Singapore and a solid work program, can provide considerable institutional support for U.S. private development in the Asia- Pacific region.
Kristoff also praised President Soeharto of Indonesia for ushering APEC into an exciting new phase with the convening of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Jakarta.
"We have under President Soeharto the opportunity to make a bold statement about the direction that the region wants to go toward (in) achieving free trade and investment," she said. Common tariffs and standards, dispute settlement mechanisms, and sectoral free trade initiatives are all possibilities, Kristoff concluded.