Commitment will save APEC, says Keating

Commitment will save APEC, says Keating

JAKARTA (JP): Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating
warned yesterday that unless Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) countries submitted positive free-trade action plans at
the upcoming APEC ministerial meeting, the group would lose its
credibility.

"Unless the individual action plans submitted in Manila are
ambitious and reflect a genuine will on the part of the APEC
governments to live up to their Bogor commitments, unless the
leaders address the most serious problems facing the region, APEC
will begin to lose credibility," Keating said.

He was addressing the 27th congress of the International
Association of Financial Executives Institutes here on
globalization, regionalism and policy challenges for the Asia
Pacific region.

The 18 APEC countries must submit their individual action
plans, detailing measures to reduce trade and investment
barriers, at the APEC ministerial meeting in Manila later this
month.

At the APEC Bogor summit here in 1994, APEC leaders agreed to
remove trade and tariff barriers in the Asia Pacific region by
2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing countries.

Keating said if the Manila meeting failed to comply with the
commitments on free trade made in Bogor, APEC would lose its
ability to influence the World Trade Organization ministerial
meeting in Singapore in December.

Keating, an architect of APEC, said APEC could also fail if it
expanded its membership.

"I want to be quite clear about this. In my view we will lose
APEC if the membership expands now, or if it ever expands too
much," he said.

Diffuse

He said if APEC expanded it would lose its potential because
its agenda would become too diffuse, and that its focus on links
between East Asia and North America would be lost. He said that
APEC would then conveniently split into separate sub-groups.

"With 18 participants now, the leaders forum is already near
the maximum possible for free interchange. With larger numbers,
the meetings will become proforma discussions with preordained
outcomes. Leaders will over time, and quite a short time at that,
lose their motivation for meeting," he said.

APEC's underlying purpose is simple but deeply important,
Keating said: "It is, first, to help create the conditions which
will enable Asia Pacific countries to continue to develop
economically."

Its second purpose, he said, was to help its members deal with
the consequences of that development. The third purpose was to
maintain peace and security in East Asia, in part by helping to
prevent a split between North America and East Asia.

Keating was replaced by Prime Minister John Howard when the
Labor Party lost Australia's March elections. (bnt)