KL set to reject APEC trade institutionalization
KL set to reject APEC trade institutionalization
By Ong Saw Lay
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia, more eager to advance its idea of an economic caucus for East Asia, is set to reject plans to institutionalize a trade liberalization process for the Pacific, officials and analysts said Wednesday.
Clear indications were given by Malaysia's Minister of International Trade and Industry Rafidah Aziz on Tuesday that Kuala Lumpur would oppose "such lofty ideals to institutionalize trade liberalization within the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) process."
Malaysian trade officials said Kuala Lumpur was also to reject plans to formalize what seems to have become an annual summit of APEC leaders.
"It started off with an informal APEC summit in Seattle hosted by the US. Indonesia is saying there is going to be one at the Bogor meeting and Japan has said it plans to do the same next year -- where will all these end up?" a top Malaysian government official asked.
Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad was called a "recalcitrant" by his Australian counterpart Paul Keating when he shunned the APEC summit held in November last year in Seattle.
Analysts said Malaysia was worried APEC's consolidation would subsume and dilute the influence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose leaders only meet once every three years.
The 27-year-old ASEAN groups Malaysia with Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
"Other members may view it differently for apparent reasons. Singapore, for example, which survives on strong trading links with the world, is all for a strong APEC and an APEC free-trade zone," said the official.
An 11-point draft obtained by AFP in Jakarta ahead of the Bogor meet says APEC wants advanced industrial countries to substantially reduce or remove trade barriers faster, at least by the year 2010, while developing economies should meet a 2020 target date.
But Rafidah said: "APEC is not an institutionalized body, everything that it wants to conclude has to be done on consensus and nothing that APEC agrees to is binding on any member."
China has joined Malaysia's camp, saying last week it was cautious about adopting any specific APEC timetable.
"We are all for free trade ... but there is a danger of being dominated by the big powers in APEC," said Kamil Jaafar, secretary-general of Malaysia's foreign ministry.
Malaysia feared that major developed nations would exploit APEC to pursue what they failed to achieve during multilateral trade negotiations within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), officials said.
Mahathir had said in 1992 it would leave APEC if there was evidence it was being used for other purposes.
Officials said ASEAN as a group did not want APEC's industrial nations to gain favored access to the booming region's market of some 300 million people without reciprocal benefits.
Malaysia, which abhors the U.S. dominance of APEC, has more at stake.
It prefers to see a quick take-off of its 1990 proposal of an East Asian Economic Caucus, that does not include the United States. Washington has opposed it as a budding trade bloc.
APEC, formed in 1989 with headquarters in Singapore, groups the six members of ASEAN, and Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan and the United States.
Chile is due to join as APEC's 18th member when the forum meets in Bogor from Nov. 15.