Australia says it has least to do for trade target
Australia says it has least to do for trade target
CANBERRA (Reuter): Australia will probably need to pull down fewer trade barriers than any other country aiming for free trade in the Asia-Pacific region, the government said yesterday.
"The task for us is largely behind us," Prime Minister Paul Keating told reporters on his return from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Indonesia.
APEC leaders agreed on Tuesday to target free trade in the region by 2020, with industrialized members -- such as the United States and Australia -- achieving the objective by 2010.
"Australia is already a long way down the path of free trade, having already eliminated quotas," Finance Minister Kim Beazley told parliament.
"Probably of all the countries in the region we will have the least adjustment to make in achieving these goals."
Australia, once a heavily protected economy, eliminated its import quotas in the 1980s while also reducing tariffs.
The last major element of the once elaborate system of trade barriers, the general manufacturing tariff, will fall to five percent in 1996, with the only exceptions granted to the clothing and motor vehicle industries.
"We're going to be down to an average level of manufacturing protection of about three percent by the year 2000," Keating said.
But foreign investment remains regulated -- with restrictions in certain industries, particularly the media, and a broad requirement that investment be in the national interest.
"We couldn't have thought of this (free trade in the region) had we not taken the decision 10 to 12 years ago to open Australia up," said Keating, who led the charge to deregulate the economy while he was treasurer from 1983 to 1991.
Japan
Meanwhile, analysts and Japanese media were skeptical yesterday about turning the broad commitment reached at Bogor, Indonesia into a blueprint for action in next year's meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka.
"Right now this is just a political statement," said John Neuffer, senior research fellow at Mitsui Marine Research Institute.
"It seems that the host country has to come up with some sort of vision," Neuffer said. "The more forward-looking people (in Japan) are looking at it as an opportunity to show political and economic leadership in the region, but I have doubts about how effectively Japan can do that."
Setting a timetable for free trade in the region itself was controversial, with the United States and Australia pushing hard while others such as China and Malaysia resisted.
Just hours after member nations agreed on the accord, Malaysia issued a document of reservation, insisting the target dates of 2020 and 2010 were indicative dates and non-binding.
Japanese media clearly had doubts of their own.
"APEC has publicly committed to liberalization, but this does not mean any guarantee that progress is possible," said an editorial in influential financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said on Tuesday that the next APEC meeting in Osaka would focus on the specifics of free trade in member countries. He also admitted Japan has its own worries, especially over agricultural liberalization.
Foremost among the specifics that need to be worked out is likely to be the meaning of the phrase "free and open trade".
"The Bogor accord did not define or explain the scope of liberalization," said the daily Asahi Shimbun. "It is also doubtful how much meaning the deadline 25 years hence has."
Japanese officials have already said Tokyo, under perennial fire for not assuming higher-profile leadership in the region, would play a "subtle" role next year.