Politics set to dominate APEC summit

Politics set to dominate APEC summit

By Chris Johnson

AUCKLAND (Reuters): Politics will again take center stage at this year's summit of Asia Pacific leaders, despite the protests of trade officials, as the world's great powers try to decide how to end the worsening bloodshed in East Timor.

Politicians and officials arriving in New Zealand ahead of the Sept. 12-13 heads of government meeting of the 21-member Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum were in no doubt on Wednesday that the crisis in the would-be-independent territory would be a key concern of many delegations.

"It is taking (the focus) away from APEC," said Kobsak Chutikul, director general for economic affairs at the Thai Foreign Ministry. "The indication is that some countries may even bring it up in the formal APEC ministerial or even the leaders meeting."

Politics is not supposed to intrude at the APEC meetings, set up primarily to push for free trade around Asia and the Pacific Rim.

But in recent years, officials at the annual leaders' meeting of the forum, whose members account for some 60 percent of the world economy and almost half of global trade, have spent an increasing proportion of their time discussing what APEC's founders 10 years ago would have regarded as peripheral issues.

Last year in Kuala Lumpur, most media attention centered on a blistering row between hosts Malaysia and U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who praised the opposition supporters of jailed former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

This year in Auckland, the carnage in East Timor in the wake of the territory's overwhelming vote for independence last week is dominating early meetings of politicians and officials, who are discussing the possibility of sending in a multilateral peacekeeping force.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, who on Wednesday ordered a frigate to northern Australia to support a standby evacuation force, said she hoped ministers could raise the pressure on Indonesia to restore order in East Timor before the APEC summit at the weekend.

A meeting especially on the Timor issue would be held on Thursday, officials said.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon told Reuters Television many ministers wanted to help resolve the crisis.

"I wouldn't want to prejudge the meetings we have here, but clearly the number of ministers who wish to come along and lend their support, become involved, is very promising," he said.

"This can't be other than a regional-type initiative," McKinnon added.

Analysts discern a gradual shift in APEC towards a more political role, a process they say is probably inevitable as other forums and organizations emerge.

First among these is the World Trade Organization (WTO), which since its inaugural ministerial meeting in Singapore has become the prime force for trade liberalization in the region.

When the Kuala Lumpur APEC meeting failed to reach agreement on opening markets for nine of 15 areas representing US$1.5 trillion in trade, it passed the buck to the WTO.

This year APEC, which requires consensus for agreement rather than working on majority-rules principles, agreed to pass tariff elements for the other six sectors to the WTO.

Some trade experts have warned that the failure of APEC to carry out tariff cuts itself reduced it to a cheerleader on the sidelines of the main WTO event.

But this doesn't mean APEC will have nothing to do on trade matters. On the contrary, officials say, this year's APEC, just two months ahead of the next WTO in Seattle, will have the chance to shape much of the WTO agenda.

With many trade issues already handled by another organization, APEC can train much of its fire on other issues, including China-U.S. diplomacy and the thorny issue of whether China should be allowed to join the WTO.

"Over the next few days, people will focus on China-U.S. relations and on East Timor," said Robert Scully, director of Auckland University's APEC Study Center.

"Timor is obviously going to provoke a lot of attention. There is no question about it," he said. "What happened last year with Anwar will to some extent happen this year with Timor."

Scully suggested Timor may even make it to the official agenda.

"Given the experience of the last two years, I would be surprised if some people didn't take the view that it is better to have politics on the agenda than off it," he said.