Asia-Pacific nations split on free trade

Asia-Pacific nations split on free trade

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters): Pacific Rim countries struggled
on Friday to agree a common platform on global free trade talks
ahead of a summit of the region's leaders next week.

The United States, Canada and New Zealand all pressed for the
21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to agree
dates next year for negotiations under the auspices of the World
Trade Organization (WTO), officials said.

But several other nations, including Malaysia and South Korea,
argued against any specific time commitment for the talks in the
wake of last year's fiasco in Seattle when a WTO meeting
collapsed amid riots and anti-globalization demonstrations.

A document prepared for APEC ministers and obtained by Reuters
on Friday said the final communique of APEC leaders after their
meeting on November 15-16, should support the goal of a new WTO-
led trade round starting in 2001.

APEC ministers meet on Sunday and Monday, and the summit on
Thursday and Friday will be attended by, among others, U.S.
President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

The document said APEC should: "Commit to strengthening
cooperation as we strive for (the) launch of (a) WTO round in
2001 for the benefit of all WTO members particularly least
developed and developing economies."

But it was not clear if this paragraph would be included in
the final document to be published on November 16.

"The U.S. is pushing aggressively for a clear and concrete
program for launching a new round," Thailand's Economic Affairs
Department Director-General Kobsak Chutikul told reporters.

A senior Western diplomat told Reuters there was "a very
credible argument" for "some sharp language" in the statement to
demonstrate the group's commitment to trade liberalization, but
declined to forecast what language would finally emerge.

A senior U.S. State Department official for APEC, Lawrence
Greenwood, told reporters: "I think there is broad support for an
early launch of the new round. We are working out the details on
how we portray that and what we ourselves want."

But another senior APEC official said APEC's common platform
on WTO was "a little bit shaky."

"It is very difficult to get a consensus on a trade round."
Some Asian countries are in no hurry to liberalize their markets
and say APEC credibility could be damaged if it called for a
starting date for trade talks and that target wasn't met.

They want a more cautious approach in committing to a specific
timeframe for a new round of global trade talks.

Asia is still suffering from the catastrophic effects of a
deep recession that followed the regional currency crisis of 1997
and 1998 and this has encouraged protectionist sentiment.

"I have very serious doubts about anything shaping out of
Brunei, because there is not yet any sign of a credible agenda
that is of interest to both developed and developing countries,"
International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz told a
news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Meetings on Friday revealed few other serious disputes and
wound up after just one day instead of continuing for two days as
planned, senior APEC officials said.

The APEC document confirmed earlier reports APEC leaders would
lay down ambitious plans in Brunei next week to bridge what they
call the "digital divide" to help poor nations benefit from the
information technology revolution that is already dramatically
changing the developed world.

The United States and Japan have been transformed by the
computer revolution of the last decade. But the membership of
APEC -- representing almost half the world's trade and 60 percent
of global output -- contains some much poorer nations such as
Thailand, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea.

APEC leaders want their annual gathering to be a springboard
to help developing nations take advantage of the new technology.

"If there is one key issue that will come up, it will be on e-
commerce and information technology (IT)," a senior U.S. State
Department official told Reuters.

Mitsuru Taniuchi, chair of the APEC Economic Committee and a
senior official in Japan's Economic Planning Agency, said APEC
officials were worried the gap between rich and poor in
information technology could become a barrier to free trade.

"One of the top concerns is this digital divide," he said.
"Because of lags in advances in information technology, some
economies are not prepared to ride on the digital wave.

Other topics at APEC include ways to cushion members from the
impact of high oil prices, with stockpiles one of the
possibilities being mentioned, and currency volatility.