Japan overshadowed by China, U.S. at APEC
Japan overshadowed by China, U.S. at APEC
By Eugene Moosa
MANILA (Reuter): Japan took a backseat to China and the United
States at an annual Asia-Pacific summit and gave itself only a
passing grade for its own performance.
Japan had three aims at this year's Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) gathering -- pushing the role of the private
sector, coordinating export credit agencies to boost
infrastructure and drafting rules to protect foreign investment.
But Japan, which won kudos for steering last year's Asia-
Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Osaka, garnered only
limited support for its initiatives, once again failing to match
its economic power in the region with diplomatic clout.
Its performance was a stark contrast to that of the United
States, which announced a breakthrough exchange of summits with
China and won a key concession on information technology trade.
"Taking on a leadership role is a difficult task at APEC,
since we all (APEC members) are striving to achieve consensus,"
one senior Japanese government official said after the talks.
"It is too much to say Japan should perform as an undisputed
leader," he said.
The summit had no trouble agreeing to Japan's first aim, that
the private sector needed to be involved in APEC plans to achieve
borderless trade in the region by 2020.
Japan was also able to reassure APEC members concerned that
export credits, called trade insurance in Japan, were a form of
subsidy. Export credit agencies help businesses manage the risk
of investing in emerging markets, much of it in infrastructure.
A statement stressing the benefit of such services found its way
into the declaration issued after the summit in Subic Bay.
But Japan failed to win support for rules to protect foreign
investment, mainly because of developing countries' fears that
uncontrolled investment could harm their industries, Japanese
officials said. Japan is a major investor in the region, having
shifted much of its manufacturing to cheaper locations in Asia.
Investment protection was only vaguely referred to in the
summit declaration: "We direct our ministers to intensify work in
1997 on...enhancing the environment for investments."
"This is just 70 percent for Japan," said a senior Trade
Ministry official of Japan's success in pushing its objectives,
characterizing this as a passing grade.
Japan took a backseat in efforts to convince APEC members to
clearly back a U.S. proposal on an Information Technology
Agreement (ITA) that would scrap tariffs on computers and related
goods by the year 2000.
The declaration called for an agreement to "substantially
eliminate" tariffs by 2000, but, taking account of concerns among
developing countries, recognized a need for "flexibility".
Japan also came up against stiff resistance to having China's
proposed entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) clearly
mentioned in the declaration, although the statement called for
speeding up the WTO membership process for all aspirants.
China had sought clear APEC backing for its proposed entry
into the global trade body.
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto also failed to win support
for a Japanese proposal to include discussions on drugs and
weapons trafficking in APEC talks. Some leaders were supportive,
Japanese officials said, but many said APEC was primarily an
economic and not a crime-fighting forum.
Asked about Japan's future role in APEC, Hashimoto was vague,
saying Tokyo would "do its best" to achieve the forum's aims of
trade and investment liberalization and economic cooperation.
"I know this is a vague reply but we will strive for these
policies in various bilateral and multilateral settings,"
Hashimoto told a post-summit news conference.