Consensus reached at APEC

Consensus reached at APEC

By Endy M. Bayuni

OSAKA, Japan (JP): APEC ministers reached a consensus yesterday on how the 18 member-countries should phase out all trade barriers in the region, overcoming a number of contentious points that had been the subject of heated controversy.

"We have reached a consensus," Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto, Indonesia's chief delegate to the ministerial conference of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, told Indonesian journalists.

Hartarto declined to go into the details of APEC's Action Agenda, but said the two free trade deadlines, 2010 for developed member-economies and 2020 for developing economies, remain unchanged. "That's the most important thing," he added.

"Now the (APEC) ministers finally can present a clean action agenda to the leaders," Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said, referring to this Sunday's informal meeting of APEC leaders here.

Hartarto, who has been hopeful of an agreement all along, attributed the result to the positive attitude of the ministers. "Everyone wanted this conference to succeed," he said.

Four principles in the Action Agenda -- comprehensiveness, comparability, flexibility and non-discrimination -- were agreed within a matter of hours of deliberations by the ministers yesterday, the first day of their two-day conference.

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China had earlier objected to "comprehensiveness", seeking special treatment for sensitive sectors, particularly agriculture, under trade liberalization measures.

As a compromise, flexibility was agreed on, but without altering the deadlines.

Some countries had opposed the inclusion of the principle of comparability in the way each individual member dismantles its trade barriers, pointing out that APEC's decisions are not binding.

The United States had objected to the principle of non- discrimination because it would mean having to automatically grant trade privileges to China, even though the latter is not a member of the World Trade Organization.

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor hailed the agreement reached by the ministers.

"We have one. It's a good one. It's been unanimously adopted and we will recommend it to the leaders," Kantor was quoted by Reuters as saying after the conference.

"We have really taken another giant step forward in APEC," he said. He added: "We're moving forward in the fastest growing region of the world."

Reservations

There may be some reservations, however, as indicated by China to the press.

Chinese officials said the wording of the non-discrimination principle was too vague to resolve the U.S.-China wrangle over the preferential trading terms which Washington grants to Beijing.

"We are pleased that some consensus, some agreements against discriminatory trade, have been made. However, we think that the version of the non-discrimination text has not fully reflected the Chinese position," a Chinese official said.

Senior Chinese trade official Long Youngtu was quoted by Reuters as saying that APEC ministers had agreed to "endeavor" to abide by principles of non-discrimination in all trade matters.

The wording, he said, was too vague to be binding.

The Action Agenda is the blueprint for the implementation of the free trade pledge made by APEC's leaders in their last meeting in Bogor, Indonesia, last year.

Alatas said that the wording of the document could still be changed by the leaders during their one-day retreat on Sunday.

Yesterday's conference was overshadowed by news from Washington that U.S. President Bill Clinton will not be present at the leadership meeting because of the federal budget confrontation he faces with Congress. Vice President Al Gore is to take Clinton's place.

Canadian Premier Jean Chretien and Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating were the first two leaders to arrive for Sunday's informal meeting.

Indonesian President Soeharto is scheduled to arrive later today, as are most of the other leaders.

The ministers will continue with their deliberations today, focusing more on organizational, administrative and budgetary matters, Alatas said.

The ministers are scheduled to wind up their conference with a communique and a joint press conference.

Environment -- Page 5

Hartarto -- Page 8