Financial crisis should top APEC agenda, U.S. says
Financial crisis should top APEC agenda, U.S. says
WASHINGTON (AFP): The Southeast Asian economic crisis should top the agenda at an upcoming summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, a U.S. official said Thursday, calling for an IMF-centered response to regional financial turmoil.
John Wolf, U.S. coordinator for the 18-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, told a congressional subcommittee that APEC leaders would also discuss efforts to combat the haze blanketing the region as well as global warming.
The summit is to be held in Vancouver Nov. 24-25 following a meeting of APEC foreign ministers Nov. 22-23.
"Millions of Americans are of Asian and Pacific descent," Wolf told a House of Representatives subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
"Thousands of U.S. companies are involved in the region and millions of American jobs depend on Asia's well-being ... When Asia hurts, we hurt."
For that reason, he said, President Bill Clinton and his administration "expect the Southeast Asia financial crisis to be at the top of the leaders' agenda."
But Wolf hinted that one proposal Washington was unlikely to support would see the establishment of a regional fund, first proposed by Japan, to respond to acute economic disruptions in the area.
Several Southeast Asian nations have backed such a mechanism and hope to win U.S. support at a meeting of U.S. and Asian finance officials in Manila Nov. 18-19.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers on Wednesday made clear the administration's discomfort with the notion of a regional mechanism, insisting that the International Monetary Fund was the only institution capable of providing assistance tied to strict reforms.
It was a point underscored by Wolf on Thursday.
"It is important to ensure that when countries receive funds from outside sources ... that the resources will be used to support an adjustment program that supports the necessary measures to restore financial stability," he maintained.
"And we believe the IMF is the best positioned to assure a credible adjustment program."
When not debating means to shore up once-thriving regional economies made vulnerable by sharp currency devaluations and over-extended financial sectors, APEC leaders are also likely to grapple with pressing environmental concerns.
Wolf said the United States is looking for ways to boost its aid to Indonesia, where it already has three C-130 aircraft and technical personnel to combat huge forest fires responsible for a thick covering of smoke and haze choking parts of several neighboring countries.
But he added that there would also be a broader discussion of climate change, although it was unlikely the summit would come to unified position.
The summit comes just several weeks before a United Nations gathering in Kyoto to adopt international curbs on carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for a worrisome rise in the earth's atmospheric temperatures.
The United States, the world's biggest polluter, has been chastised by its European partners for its failure to adopt strict limits on "greenhouse gases" and for pressuring developing countries to sacrifice a bit of growth and cut back on carbon emissions.
But according to Wolf, "what the haze makes clear is that threats to the environment ... are not just coming from the developed countries. It's a problem every one shares and it's a solution in which every one must participate."
He said the United States also wants the summit to act on Clinton's proposals for electronic commerce as well as to identify specific economic sectors for trade liberalization and to take steps toward standards harmonization.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
Rubin
In a related development, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said on Thursday he did not know whether the recent period of economic woes in Southeast Asia was over or whether further assistance for the region might be needed.
"I think it's hard to judge whether we've gone through the instability and how things will settle out or whether there's more instability ahead," Rubin said in an interview with CNN's Moneyline.
His remarks came a day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $10 billion loan for Indonesia as part of a huge international package, the third IMF bailout for Asian countries in recent months.
The United States would work with the IMF on future programs should they be needed, he added. "We will work with the IMF on IMF-centered programs. If we are involved, it will always be in support of an IMF program," he said.
Rubin reiterated that the crisis in Southeast Asia was unlikely to have a major impact on the U.S economy. "I don't think at this point that the instabilities will have a significant effect on the United States economy," he said. "But it is enormously in our interest that Southeast Asia work through this successfully."
The Treasury chief added he was confident the region's long- term economic prospects remained positive, noting the Southeast Asian countries' "substantial long-term strength."