Singapore and Australia launch free trade talks

Singapore and Australia launch free trade talks

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (AFP): The next director general of the World Trade Organization, Supachai Panitchpakdi, on Wednesday warned that over-ambitious targets for global trade liberalization risked derailing the entire process.

Speaking at a business forum here, Supachai pointed to demands voiced for the next round of global trade talks, with governments wanting them to be comprehensive, taking in the interests of all members, and to be completed within a manageable time.

"If you put all this together, it will become well-nigh impossible, I would say unfeasible, for the WTO to cooperate," he said.

"So we need to probably tone down our ambitions a bit, we need to be a little more realistic."

Supachai, who is scheduled to head the WTO for a three-year period beginning 2002, was addressing business executives assembled on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

He denied the call for a realistic approach to global trade talks reflected a lowering of objectives.

"We are still being as ambitious as we have been," he said. "But at least to get the process moving, to reach certain agreements, we are going to have to be a bit more flexible, we may need to have a bigger political will, we cannot blame everyone in Geneva that they are not moving."

In his capacity as Thailand's commerce minister, Supachai was part of the APEC ministerial meeting here which agreed Monday not to drive for a new WTO round next year, but to at least set an agenda by the end of 2001.

"You cannot find ideal solutions all the time but you need to at least get down to an agreement on the agenda of the new round," he said.

"Do not fix a target too early. We cannot tolerate a second failure. It would be close to disastrous for the WTO."

WTO talks in Seattle a year ago were aborted with a flare-up between Japan and Europe on one side and the United States on the other over trade protection.

Supachai said an "incremental, gradual" approach, gradually adding to issues discussed and building on accumulating successes, would be the path that would most likely yield a result.

"Although we all agree upon a comprehensive new round, what we really need to achieve is a comprehensive outcome, where all the interests of all participating countries will be there," he said.

He said a new round of trade talks could be helped by informal meetings among the 30 or 40 countries with the most serious trade issues, held in third countries.

Informal talks between representatives of the developed and the developing countries could also contribute to smoother global trade talks, by introducing a North-South component, he said.