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."