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."