APEC's farmers urged to be more efficient

APEC's farmers urged to be more efficient

MANILA (Reuter): Farmers in emerging Asia-Pacific economies need to become more efficient to compete in a free trade environment if developed nations continue producing cheaper commodities, agricultural experts said yesterday.

"Rural folk in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific cannot survive in a free trade arena if they don't get enough support from their governments," said Mitsugi Kamiya, president of Japan's Food and Agriculture Research Center,

Kamiya, attending a three-day forum on regional food and agricultural policy, told Reuters that farmers in developing countries would need government help to prepare for a free trade environment.

Such assistance, he said, could be in the form of investment on infrastructure and research and development.

The experts included a mix of economists from the private sector and government institutions in APEC member economies.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum aims to bring down trade tariffs and liberalize investment among its members by the year 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing countries.

"APEC should address first fair trade before promoting free trade," said Raul Montemayor, president of the Philippine's Federation of Free Farmers Cooperative Inc.

He said farmers were worried that free trade might lead to a flood of commodities from rich nations which, he said, subsidized their farm sectors.

But others said developed countries had considerably reduced subsidies on farm products.

"Developed countries, including the United States, have reduced subsidies given to farm products due to the burden this creates on their budgets and as a result of their commitments in the promotion of liberalized trade," said Eugenia Muchnik of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Kamiya, an economist, said there was a need for farmers in poorer nations to improve efficiency.

"Infrastructure in production and distribution is under- equipped ... it may be difficult to avoid heavier dependence on imported food," he said.

Meanwhile, Boeing Co. Chairman Frank Shrontz said in Seattle, the United States, Tuesday that APEC's business leaders this month will propose long-term visas for frequent travelers and measures to speed the movement of goods and capital in APEC nations.

Shrontz, in a luncheon speech to executives from the 16 countries of the APEC, outlined recommendations to be presented by a business advisory council in advance of APEC's November summit in the Philippines.

"Clearly there are great opportunities for improving the cross-border flow of people, goods and services," said Shrontz, one of three U.S. members of the advisory council.

He said a "semi-permanent" business visa that would be valid in all 16 countries for five or 10 years is among the changes that business leaders hope could be adopted as early as the November summit.

"Today visas are often single-entry, always single country, and can take weeks to obtain," he said.

He said the business leaders also would like to see special APEC "business lanes" at points of entry and adoption of free- trade policies before the current deadlines of 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for others.

Business leaders also plan to propose that APEC nations adopt a list of priority infrastructure projects that would qualify for a uniform set of liberalized investment principles to encourage private foreign investment.

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