APEC vows to ratify GATT soon

JAKARTA (JP): Members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum yesterday asserted their commitment to speedily ratify the results of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) before its looming deadline.

In a joint statement following an APEC trade ministers meeting here yesterday, the 17 members of the forum pledged to take "maximum efforts in each of their economies to ensure the early ratification of the World Trade Organization (WTO)."

At the end of the one-day meeting aimed at assessing the results and implications of the GATT on the region, the ministers believed the region would benefit greatly from the strengthened rules and increased market access resulting from it.

Earlier yesterday President Soeharto in his opening speech also called on APEC members to remove any impediments that would delay the agreement's implementation.

"I would like to appeal to other APEC members to follow our lead by seeing to it that the World Trade Organization will be ratified as soon as possible," Soeharto said.

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

Of those 17 members, Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia were represented by their ministers at yesterday's meeting and the others by lower ranking officials.

Minister in Charge of Trade Alvaro Garcia of Chile, which will assume APEC membership in November, took part in yesterday's meeting as well.

Apart from ratification, Soeharto stressed the need for APEC members to seriously carry out their obligations and monitor the implementation of the GATT.

The Uruguay Round of the GATT concluded in April with countries agreeing to a new liberalized international trade structure under the WTO to be implemented on Jan. 1, 1995.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky yesterday expressed optimism that her country would ratify the agreement before the end of the year.

"The margin of approval of both Houses of our legislature will be overwhelming," Barshefsky said forecasting the result of the U.S. Congressional and Senate vote due to take place next month.

Separately, the deputy to the Japanese minister of international trade and industry, Kazuo Majima, also revealed that his country would ratify the agreement before the deadline.

Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Chulsu Kim said his government had submitted the GATT agreement to the national assembly and was now awaiting the outcome of the assembly's winter session.

"I have every expectation that the bills will be ratified before the end of the year," Kim said.

Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR) is expected to ratify the WTO next Tuesday.

Impediments

To better facilitate trade, the ministers yesterday agreed that the forum would undertake efforts to identify key trade impediments in the region.

They agreed that in doing so, impediments would be identified by the sectors and types of barriers.

Philippine Under Secretary Cesar Bautista said that based on the reports submitted by the forum's Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), 12 issues have been identified as the main impediments to freer trade in the region.

However, Bautista noted that a number of issues such as sanitary measures, anti-dumping and customs procedures "demand serious attention."

A full report of the matter will be presented to the APEC Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta on Nov. 11-12.

The ministers stated that to help overcome these barriers and facilitate a more systematic and sequential approach to trade liberalization, APEC members should improve their exchange of information.

Thus the meeting yesterday gave resounding support for a pilot project of an APEC Tariff Database in 1995. Should the project prove successful, the ministers urged that it be implemented in full.

When asked about their views on the forum's Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report calling for free trade by the year 2020, Indonesia's Minister of Trade Satrio Budiardjo Joedono, who chaired the meeting, said the issue had not been discussed thoroughly.

"We did not discuss timetables...We leave that to our leaders," he said.

Joedono's brief answer was understandable considering that during the opening ceremony, President Soeharto warned that such issues would be tackled in the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting on Nov. 15 in Bogor.

"Whether we can move ahead further in the trade and investment liberalization among ourselves will be determined at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting," Soeharto said.(mds)