More concern about Japan's slow pace on APEC plan

More concern about Japan's slow pace on APEC plan

JAKARTA (JP): Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon
further ignited concerns yesterday that Japan was sluggish in
completing a free trade blueprint for the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"We share the concerns expressed by the President of Indonesia
and the Prime Minister of Singapore," Siazon said, referring to
Thursday's meeting between the two leaders in which Prime
Minister Goh Chok Tong said Japan was not moving at "full steam"
to realize the APEC vision.

"I think that the progress of APEC could be accelerated,"
Siazon told journalists after a meeting with his Indonesian
counterpart Ali Alatas yesterday.

Siazon arrived yesterday morning for a three-day introductory
visit as the new foreign secretary of the Philippines.

Last month he replaced Roberto Romulo, who resigned in the
wake of the furor over the hanging of Filipina maid Flor
Contemplation in Singapore.

Siazon said that he was hoping that a clear plan of action
could be formulated to implement the Bogor Declaration during the
next APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Osaka, Japan.

"We are hoping that there will be more progress than what we
have seen today," he remarked.

During the last year's AELM in Bogor, West Java, leaders
adopted the Bogor Declaration for comprehensive trade
liberalization no later than 2010 for developed countries and
2020 for developing ones.

As APEC chairman, Japan is responsible for formulating a
blueprint for realizing the Bogor Declaration.

APEC groups Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan,
Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, and
the United States with the six members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Siazon said that one difficulty could be the speed with which
the participating member economies of APEC are prepared to
proceed, adding that it was difficult to illicit consensus from
18 economies.

At a separate occasion yesterday, Alatas refused to fault
Japan for its apparent inertia.

"It is true that during the first meeting a few delegates
perceived that kind of perception, but during the second meeting
there was already evidence of progress," he said of the four
senior officials meetings planned before the AELM in Osaka.

"Personally I would tend to say, give them a chance to
continue their preparations," Alatas remarked.

Meeting Alatas and then separately with President Soeharto, on
both occasions Siazon said he expects the issue of the South
China Sea to be discussed during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
meeting in Brunei next August.

"Inevitably, although maybe not as an ASEAN topic, in view of
the great number of claimants to the Spratlys who are at the same
time participants of ARF," he said alluding to the forum between
ASEAN and its dialog partners.

Siazon also expressed appreciation of Indonesia's efforts in
facilitating negotiations between Manila and the Moro National
Liberation Front.

"This is not only a Philippine problem, this is a problem of
many of the ASEAN countries closely located to the Philippines,"
he said. (mds)