Leaders call for better Europe-East Asia ties

Leaders call for better Europe-East Asia ties

SINGAPORE (AFP): More than 500 political and business leaders from Europe and East Asia ended an annual meeting here yesterday with a call for a partnership of equals that would balance the global economic order.

A communique issued at the end of the three-day meeting sponsored by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum called for "a fully balanced relationship between Europe, East Asia and the United States."

This would allow "a smooth functioning of the multilateral trading system so crucial for world prosperity" and prevent "major disruptions from seriously damaging total growth prospects."

The Singapore meeting was part of preparations for the landmark Bangkok summit in March of 10 East Asian and 15 European Union nations, along with the European Commission, to map out their relations into the 21st century.

East Asia, the world's most economically dynamic region, is already linked to the Americas through the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which will hold its own summit in Osaka, Japan in November.

Claude Smadja, spokesman for the Singapore conference, told journalists that unlike in past meetings, differences between Europe and Asia over human rights and other sensitive topics were toned down.

He attributed this to a growing realization in Europe of the economic importance of Asia, and a will on the part of Asia to involve Europe in the region, particularly in investment and technology.

"Last year you had some very sharp exchanges between some European and Asian business and political leaders," Smadja said. "This year it was almost too quiet.

Differences

But he acknowledged that differences persisted, despite the change in "atmospherics."

Developing countries led by the Euro-Asian summit's host Thailand maintained during the Singapore meeting that there should be no linkage between trade on the one hand and human rights, labor issues, the environment and other matters on the other.

Western nations maintain that lack of respect for human rights, sweatshop conditions and polluting industries give Asian nations an unfair trade advantage.

The issues are expected to spill over to the Bangkok summit.

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, closing the Singapore conference, warned that a "Fortress Europe" could trigger a chain of protectionist calls, and urged the two continents to build a partnership of equals.

"If Europe turns inwards, if Europe succumbs to the dangerous calls for trade penalties against low-wage developing countries, it will trigger off similar calls from Asia," Goh said.

"An European trade bloc will be followed by a North American trade bloc and an Asian trade bloc," he said.

Goh said Europe's prolonged recession and persistent unemployment had led to a "widespread but misplaced belief" that developing countries were stealing the jobs of workers in Western industrialized nations.

"In turn, this has fueled protectionist pressures by linking trade with labor standards," he said.

He called for a "true partnership" between Europe and the booming economies of East Asia, saying an economic relationship between the two regions should be seen as a "game of synergy, not a beggar-thy-neighbor policy."