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