Free trade pledge ignites fears in Asia-Pacific

Free trade pledge ignites fears in Asia-Pacific

By Nathaniel Harrison

MANILA (AFP): Asia-Pacific leaders pledged Monday to move from
talk to action on free trade but their initiative has sparked
fears in the region that vulnerable communities and economies
will pay a heavy price.

The 18-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum,
at the end of a summit in the Philippines, endorsed a plan to
reduce tariffs and other obstacles to the free flow of capital
and investment.

But unlike previous APEC gatherings, this one actually
committed participants to concrete steps by a certain date.

In their final declaration issued in Subic Bay north of here,
APEC leaders approved a free trade "action plan" and added: "We
shall implement these initiatives... beginning Jan. 1, 1997."

Under the deal, which has been talked about for two years,
developed countries in the group will complete liberalization
measures by 2010 and developing nations by 2020.

"We are determined to sustain the dynamism of our plans
through a continuous process of review and consultations," the
Subic declaration said.

Free trade enthusiasts contend that the plan has the potential
to generate jobs and prosperity in one of the fastest-growing
regions on earth, which now churns out half the world's goods and
services.

"The APEC region is ripe with opportunity and Asia is where
America's economic future is," according to U.S. Commerce
Secretary Mickey Kantor, who attended ministerial meetings ahead
of the summit.

But the tenor of Kantor's assessment is precisely what
unnerves community activists and at least one head of government,
Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia.

"I have no problem with trade liberalization per se," Mahathir
said last week.

"My concern however is with the manner and pace at which the
market liberalization measures are being pursued in the APEC
process."

As APEC groups countries at different levels of development,
he argued, "it would be unrealistic and grossly unfair to coerce
the less advanced member economies to undertake liberalization
measures at a pace and manner beyond their capacity."

Mahathir insisted that the APEC process should ensure that
developed partners assist less advanced economies to enhance
their productive capacity.

"Opening up the market of the rich to the poor is meaningless
if the poor have nothing to sell," he said.

Of real concern within some APEC members is the prospect of
powerful, highly competitive companies from the United States or
Canada overwhelming fledgling national industries -- notably
those in the high tech sector.

In the Philippines, heavily dependent on agriculture, there
are fears that lower trade barriers will open up the market to a
flood of foreign products, undercutting and impoverishing local
farmers and exacerbating economic injustice.

The APEC meetings and summit sparked a surprising degree of
public discontent in the country. Thousands of protesters staged
near daily demonstrations, prompting jittery Philippines
authorities to beef up security.

"APEC dangles the promises of jobs, riches and opportunity
before the people of the Asian Pacific nations -- all to be
achieved through trade liberalization," said a statement from the
Manila People's Forum, which grouped local and foreign non
government organizations.

"But the promise is realized for only a few -- trade
liberalization brings increased poverty, dislocation, social
disintegration and despair to millions of workers and peasants,
indigenous people, women and children in the region."