Singapore to press for APEC free trade timetable
Singapore to press for APEC free trade timetable
LANGKAWI, Malaysia (AFP): Singapore would press for a timetable for an ambitious plan to create an Asia-Pacific free trade zone by 2020, its prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, said yesterday.
"Singapore supports the usefulness of having a timeframe to achieve freer trade and we will certainly want to put this point of view across (at the APEC summit) in Bogor, Indonesia, in November," Goh told a pre-departure news conference wrapping up his three-day visit to Malaysia.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum groups 17 economies on both sides of the Pacific -- Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
Key advisers to the APEC forum that make up the so called the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) have recommended that the world's most dynamic region adopt the goal of "free and open trade and investments" by 2020.
The 53-page report has been formally presented to APEC chairman, President Soeharto of Indonesia, and it will be discussed at the group's annual summit in Indonesia in November.
EPG members said APEC should adopt both the recommended goal of a free trade area and agree on a timetable to cut barriers from 2000, completing the process within 20 years.
Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is heavily promoting the recommendation and secured the support of Japan's Tomiichi Murayama when the pair met in Tokyo earlier this week.
Credibility
Economic analysts have said APEC's credibility would be affected if the Indonesian summit did not agree to a free trade timetable.
Goh said that such a timetable would not leave behind the developing countries in APEC as some concerned quarters had suggested.
"No, it is flexible. In fact the whole idea is to help the developing countries to develop. It must be so, because it (APEC summit) is being hosted by Indonesia, which is a developing country," Goh said.
Several Indonesian economists have reportedly claimed that an APEC free trade area would benefit only developed nations.
Trade analysts said the EPG blueprint, calling for a dismantling of barriers to trade within the region and encouraging APEC members to extend the action to non-APEC countries, was likely to be adopted by the forum's leaders.
Goh dismissed suggestions that a timetable would put pressure on the European Union to rapidly remove its own trade barriers.
"I think the EU will not be worried too much about this because it is a long timeframe," assured Goh, who said he had discussed APEC with his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad during lengthy talks at this northern island resort on Tuesday.
Malaysia has voiced concern at the growth of APEC and the possibility that the United States could manipulate the group for its own trade interest.