Asia-Pacific leaders talk trade, while eying Timor

Asia-Pacific leaders talk trade, while eying Timor

AUCKLAND (Reuters): Asia-Pacific leaders began the world's
biggest annual summit on Sunday, briefly setting aside worries
over East Timor and regional conflict to discuss trade.

Heads of state and prime ministers from 21 economies
accounting for nearly half the world's trade and US$16 trillion
in output were welcomed by a New Zealand "powhiri", a traditional
challenge by a group of indigenous warriors and chiefs.

The leaders were serenaded towards their conference room by a
lone Maori woman singer and presented with a series of spoken and
musical greetings culminating in a "hongi", in which they each
pressed noses or kissed the welcoming party line.

Chief of the Ngai Tahu tribe of New Zealand's South Island Sir
Tipene O'Regan said the task of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) summit was to free trade around the Pacific.

"Your welcomes significantly begin another step on that great
path," O'Regan told the leaders.

"The giants from around this great ocean," as the chief called
them, then sat down to talk about trade liberalization.

They aim to lay down the ground-rules for global free trade
talks due to start in Seattle in November under the auspices of
the World Trade Organization (WTO).

A confidential draft of the leaders' final communique,
obtained by Reuters on Friday and due for official release on
Monday, stressed the importance of continuing reforms in
financial markets to increase competition and prosperity.

It hailed Asia's recovery from the economic slump of the past
two years, but stressed the need to boost market transparency and
regulation. It offered "the strongest possible support" to the
WTO talks and called for the repeal of export farm subsidies.

U.S. President Bill Clinton, addressing a breakfast meeting of
corporate executives on Sunday, said APEC should lead the opening
of global markets, which he said should be fairer.

"We must, in short, continue our efforts to put a human face
on the global economy -- not because it is charity but because it
is the right thing to do from a humane as well as well as from an
economic stand point," he said.

Hundreds of demonstrators around Auckland's Town Hall and
luxury hotels would have agreed. Protesters angry over causes
ranging from China's Falun Gong spiritual movement to Kashmiri
independence chanted and waved placards accusing the APEC leaders
of ignoring the needs of ordinary people.

Ten thousand New Zealand Amnesty International supporters
contributed their photographs to a 30-metre-long photo-mural
saying "APEC leaders must put human rights first".

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Canada thought
trade talks should look at issues wider than just economics. He
said the WTO should include talk of labor and the environment.

APEC does not discuss these issues and avoids any proposals
capable of offending the grouping's extremely diverse membership.

Its need for consensus in all areas has hampered its
effectiveness and much of its role in trade has been usurped in
recent years by the WTO, where hard negotiations and horse-
trading are the rule.

The APEC gatherings still play an important role and offer the
chance for leaders from countries as diverse as Papua New Guinea,
Vietnam, and the United States to meet on equal terms.

But discussions among leaders away from the meeting rooms
focused on politics.

Chretien said much of the discussion in the corridors and
bilateral was on East Timor, where many hundreds of people have
been murdered since the territory voted by almost 80 percent for
independence.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been gathering
commitments from a group of APEC nations, at least nine so far,
prepared to commit troops to a U.N.-sanctioned peace-keeping
force if it is approved by Jakarta.

Clinton demanded on Sunday that Indonesia allow an
international force in East Timor and announced he was reviewing
U.S. commercial and economic ties with Jakarta.

"We must help both the people of East Timor and the democratic
process in Indonesia because the world community seeks to have
the integrity of democracy protected everywhere."