Korea favors free trade by 2020

Korea favors free trade by 2020

SYDNEY (Reuter): South Korean President Kim Young-sam will support a deal to create a free trade zone in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region in the next century, The Australian newspaper reported yesterday.

"I will support the recommendation to complete free trade by 2020 in Bogor (Indonesia)," Kim was quoted as saying in an interview with the newspaper.

APEC leaders are expected to consider a proposal to aim for free regional trade by 2020 or earlier at their second summit at Bogor, Indonesia on Nov. 15.

"Fresh from talks with China's Premier Li Peng, he also gave the strongest indication yet that China would not stand in the way of APEC's free trade goals, saying that he expected China would play a constructive role in APEC," the newspaper said.

China and Malaysia indicated last month they remained cautious about signing a binding free trade deal and cautioned that APEC may be developing too fast.

On Friday, Australian Trade Minister Bob McMullan said he was confident the APEC leaders would agree to a non-binding free trade deal with a target date of 2020 or earlier.

Kim told The Australian that South Korea was also strongly committed to supporting free trade in the region on a non- discriminatory or most favored nation (MFN) basis, which means trade barriers would be lowered to all nations, not just those inside APEC.

"It wouldn't be desirable to introduce a kind of discriminatory treatment into the free trading system," Kim was quoted as saying.

"I think the best option is to maintain multilateralism."

The Bogor summit will be attended by leaders from Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

APEC's members account for just over half of world production and 46 percent of world exports. Chile is due to join APEC at Bogor.