China-Taiwan row mars APEC talks on free trade, WTO
China-Taiwan row mars APEC talks on free trade, WTO
SHANGHAI, China (AFP): Trade ministers from 21 Pacific rim economies ended a two-day meeting Thursday by voicing support for a new round of global trade talks, but the forum was overshadowed by an unseemly row between host nation China and Taiwan.
The representatives of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which encompass more than half the world's economic power, said the World Trade Organization meeting in the Qatari capital Doha in November would provide the perfect stage for the launch of new trade talks.
"The delegates ... strongly appealed for a new round of WTO negotiations in 2001," Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng said at a press conference after the meeting.
"They agreed that the Doha meeting would be an important opportunity to launch a new round."
The 2001 series of APEC gatherings, hosted for the first time by China, will culminate in a leaders' summit in Shanghai in October to be attended by US President George W. Bush.
The summit will be the largest gathering of heads of state on Chinese soil since the establishment of the communist state in 1949.
A statement issued at the end of the trade ministers' meeting said the new global trade round should have "equitable and effective participation of all members" and that "a balanced and sufficiently broad-based agenda" should be worked out in advance.
Until the Qatar meeting, the APEC members would show their goodwill by refraining from "using measures to increase the levels of protectionism," the statement said.
China, whose 15-year attempt to join the WTO got the backing of APEC ministers, said it would support new trade talks regardless of how fast its bid to join the Geneva-based world trade body progressed.
"Whether China can join the WTO before the Doha meeting doesn't affect its support for the new trade round," Shi said.
Amid the flow of rhetoric in favor of freer trade, the last day of the Shanghai meeting was marred by a controversy over what Taiwanese representatives said was a Chinese snub.
Taiwan's delegation, led by Economic Minister Lin Hsin-i, complained their invitation to the Shanghai meeting had initially just been in the form of a notice.
When, after much discussion, China sent a formal letter of invitation, it addressed the Taiwanese delegation head as "Mr Lin" rather than "Minister Lin," the Taiwan delegates said.
Enraged, Taiwan's delegation handed a letter of complaint to Shi earlier this week and later distributed the letter among all the participants at the meeting.
"We enjoy the same rights and obligations," Lin said at the press conference after the conclusion of the meeting. "We don't want to be sticklers on matters of form, we just want our voices to be heard."
Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Shi said the invitation to Taiwan had been completely in accordance with past practice and the understanding under which China and Taiwan joined APEC in the early 1990s.
"There is nothing like the claims by Lin and the Taiwan authorities of unfair treatment," Shi said at the press conference. "As to Taiwan's claim for a title, we have difficulties complying with that."
China has said repeatedly in recent weeks that it will not allow Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian to participate in October's summit.
Taiwan presidents have been barred from every APEC summit due to opposition from China, which has claimed sovereignty over the island since their separation in 1949 after a civil war.
China works to isolate Taiwan from international organizations, and it only accepts its representation at APEC because the forum is an economic, not political, body.