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.