EU hopes to put Asian links on solid footing

EU hopes to put Asian links on solid footing

BRUSSELS (Reuter): The European Union, stung by criticism from Asian leaders over the weekend, hopes to advance relations in the calmer atmosphere of a two-day high-level diplomatic meeting which opened yesterday.

Following criticism from foreign ministers at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Jakarta, EU officials hope for progress to be made at an Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM).

ASEM, formed last year, groups 37 Asian and European nations in a forum that strives to roll back trade barriers, reduce tariffs and encourage mutual investment.

In Indonesia over the weekend, a meeting of ASEAN heads of state suggested the EU was allowing the group to become preoccupied by human rights.

At the center of the row was ASEAN's decision to grant observer status to Myanmar, a nation in the EU spotlight following the death there of Denmark's honorary consul in suspicious circumstances.

A Danish proposal for sanctions against Myanmar was toned down last week to one condemning the government of the State Law and Order Restoration Committee (SLORC). Sanctions would be pointless without the backing of the United Nations, other EU diplomats argued.

But critics of EU foreign policy were outraged this week when Foreign Minister Dick Spring of Ireland -- which holds the rotating EU presidency -- failed to condemn Rangoon's elevation to the Asian Regional Forum, a group to which the EU also belongs.

Contradictions

The European Parliament in particular has complained at apparent contradictions in EU policy, passing a non-binding resolution last week that called for pressure on Myanmar to be stepped up.

Against this backdrop, ASEM diplomats met in Brussels yesterday and today to begin negotiating common trade policies to be tackled at the World Trade Organization meeting in Singapore in December.

The European Commission -- the EU's executive -- is determined to leave the rhetoric to the politicians and steer clear of controversy.

The main differences are over trade liberalization. The EU says liberalization will, gradually, bring labor standards in less developed countries up to Western standards.

Many Asian countries argue that the EU wants these same standards -- in other words wages -- raised in order to make them less competitive and EU exports more attractive.

The European Commission was set to propose yesterday that the WTO meeting create a working party to look at the link between labor standards and trade.

Officials say the ASEM meeting will concentrate instead on matters on which the sides agree -- the need for common investment strategies, certain environmental and trade issues and advancing progress on common customs procedures.

But sources say the officials, among the most senior in the civil services of the 37 nations, will today have to tackle the political problems that will not go away.