Asia Pacific leaders to issue statement on WTO, says official
Asia Pacific leaders to issue statement on WTO, says official
Agence France-Presse, Singapore
Asia Pacific leaders meeting in South Korea this month are
expected to issue a statement aimed at pushing forward
floundering global trade talks, an official said on Tuesday.
The statement will bring to bear the leaders' influence on a
crucial meeting of World Trade Organization (WTO) ministers in
Hong Kong in December, said Choi Seok-Young, executive-director
of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) secretariat.
Leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific economies, including U.S.
President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian
President Vladimir Putin, will attend the Nov. 18 and Nov. 19
summit in the southern city of Busan.
"There are two documents coming out of the leaders' meeting --
number one is the leaders declaration," Choi told AFP in an
interview at the secretariat's office in Singapore.
The other document would be the statement on the WTO talks,
currently focused on the agenda in the so-called Doha Development
Round.
While the language of the statement was still being crafted,
it will be meant as a "political input for the success of the
Hong Kong ministerial meeting," Choi said.
The APEC leaders' statement should contribute to efforts to
help get the ball rolling in Hong Kong, he added, pointing out
that APEC economies account for around half of global trade
volumes.
An APEC statement "would not command the WTO per se, but we
can at least give a lot of influence for the negotiating
positions of other countries in the WTO," he said.
However, the stand-alone statement on the WTO will also have
to accommodate the differing positions between APEC members such
as the United States and China, which could water down its
impact, Choi said.
"Initially, we had liked to make a strong statement but the
positions among APEC members are different," he said.
"We have to make a consensus on each individual item. The
language (of the statement) will be crafted out to reflect these
different positions."
WTO ministers will meet in Hong Kong from Dec. 13 to Dec. 18
to approve an outline deal of a trade accord.
Global trade talks have stalled over farm trade, with
agricultural product importing and exporting countries divided
over proposed maximum tariff rates.