Free trade deadline not certain: Keating

Free trade deadline not certain: Keating

SYDNEY (AFP): Australia is not taking it for granted that APEC leaders will agree on a deadline for regional free trade next week, Prime Minister Paul Keating said yesterday.

Australia's priority, however, would be to secure a political commitment to free trade at the meeting of leaders from 18 Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies in Bogor, Indonesia on Tuesday, he said.

"I have been in touch with leaders from most APEC economies over the past few months and I hope we will get the commitment we are looking for at Bogor, but I am certainly not taking it for granted," Keating said.

"For Australia, the important thing is to get it started. The end date matters less so long as it is not too distant."

Keating told the Foreign Correspondents Association the meeting should not be judged a success or failure by its ability to get a target date for free trade.

"I think it is the beginning that matters here in APEC, if we have also an ending I think that makes it so much stronger," he said. "The key thing will be getting the political commitment."

The prime minister, who travels to Indonesia on Sunday, said governments would find it extraordinarily difficult to contemplate knocking down all trade barriers within APEC by a set date.

"The benefits of free trade are clear but they are spread throughout our economies. The impact on special interest groups and protected sectors offers immediate pain," he said.

As the scale of the proposals became more evident "it is little wonder that around the region a slight clearing of the throat has turned into the odd nervous cough and then, in a few cases, into significant breathing problems."

Supporters of the deadline, including the United States, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, have run into opposition from China and Malaysia.

Keating said Malaysia was "by and large a country that subscribes to free trade," but he did not think "all leaders are going to see these declarations as being the absolute epitomy of all they desire."

"There may be compromises made or there may even be views that in some way cut across the modalities of the thing," he added. "But in its essence, I don't see much opposition to the basic proposition of what it is trying to do."

Decision

The chemistry of the APEC meeting could also induce leaders to make decisions "they might not always make, be part of the decision they would not normally be a part of," Keating said.

Once a commitment to free trade was secure, APEC would have to decide on its form, its coverage and whether it should extend to all members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) under most favored nation arrangements.

"I don't underestimate the importance of these questions or the difficulties in filling in the gaps," he said.

"But getting the political commitment by the leaders is the immediate requirement. That decision would set the region's economic agenda for the next 20 years."

Keating told foreign correspondents here he was not planning to raise human rights issues when he met APEC host Indonesian President Soeharto.

"I have raised it personally with President Soeharto on just about every occasion I have met him but this meeting is obviously about APEC," he said.

"It is an APEC meeting, it is about this agenda, this is not a visit by me to Indonesia, it is a multilateral meeting and my discussion with the president will be about how to garner support for the communique," he said.

APEC's members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. Chile, which has been taking part in preparations for the meeting, became the 18th member yesterday.