Ministerial meeting adopts APEC action plans on tariffs

MANILA (JP): Ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Friday adopted action plans which for the first time clearly describe member country's individual timetables for trade and investment liberalization.

With a deadline of 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing ones, members can now check each others commitment to free trade and investment.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

Below are some salient features of several APEC countries' individual action plans:

Indonesia has committed to eliminating surcharges and reducing tariffs to a maximum of 10 percent by 2003. It aims to eliminate 98 non-tariff barriers by 2004.

On standards and conformance, Indonesia pledged to continue to take on international standards, with priority on areas already identified by the APEC standards and conformance sub-committee.

South Korea aims to eliminate tariffs on ships from 1997, and consider revising its tariff concession schedule.

On non-tariff barriers, Korea aims to abolish quotas on all remaining items by 2001, except rice.

New Zealand has committed to all imports being duty free by 2010.

Malaysia aims to abolish or at least reduce import duties on certain items in 1997. They include dental and medical supplies, canned food, cosmetics, paper products and printed paper.

Non-tariff measures will also be reviewed and where possible relaxed or abolished.

On investment, Malaysia says that no manufacturing industries are closed and 100 percent foreign ownership is allowed.

Papua New Guinea aims to reduce tariffs to 5 percent on aluminum, basic steel, machinery, basic chemicals and capital equipment imports by 1997.

The Philippines intends to progressively reduce tariffs to a uniform rate of 5 percent by 2004, except on sensitive agricultural products.

Singapore has committed to eliminating all tariffs by 2010.

It aims to further embark on a program to liberalize certain service sectors, such as its recent commitment to remove its basic telecommunications monopoly by the year 2000.

China aims to reduce the level of simple average tariff rates from the current rate of 23 percent to about 15 percent by 2000.

On non-tariff measures, China in the short term aims to review 384 non-tariff measures and gradually reduce or relax them while ensuring transparency.

Further reforms have also been pledged in banking, insurance, commercial retailing, transportation, energy, telecommunications, tourism and other services.

Taiwan intends to progressively reduce average tariff rates to around 6 percent by 2010. About two-thirds of them are expected to be at 5 percent or less. It has promised to continue reviewing the possibility of deepening the reduction.

Upon accession to the World Trade Organization, Taiwan will eliminate import bans on 31 lines of agricultural products.

Tariff barriers in the United States are supposed to decline to 2.7 percent by the year 2000, of which a third will be bound at zero. It has further proposed zero tariff negotiations on information technology products by 2000.

Non-tariff measures are maintained in the U.S. to protect health, safety, security and the environment. (mds)