Soeharto concerned over trade rows in Asia-Pacific

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has expressed concern over an increase in trade disputes occurring between countries in the Asia-Pacific region and called for peaceful settlements which would not cause harm to others, an official says.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono, in a press briefing on Friday, quoted Soeharto as saying that trade conflicts should be avoided.

"But if they are inevitable, the disputes should be solved in the most proper way possible," Moerdiono said.

Moerdiono, accompanied by Widjojo Nitisastro and Suhadi Mangkusuwondo, who are both members of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, met with Soeharto at the Merdeka Palace to report the results of an EPG meeting held in Sapporo, Japan, last month.

The EPG, an advisory group to the APEC forum set up after the fourth meeting of APEC ministers in Thailand in 1992, groups non- governmental representatives from APEC member economies.

The EPG meeting discussed the progress of the 18-member APEC forum and prepared a report as input for the upcoming APEC meeting in Osaka in November.

Suhadi said the EPG meeting noted "worrisome developments" concerning the increasing trade disputes in the region.

"The disputes have become worse as they gain wide press coverage, triggering public sentiment and generating political conflicts, he said. "Such a situation is clearly a disadvantage to the cooperation efforts of the APEC forum."

Multilateral

He said the disputes often reached a level which "tend to disregard existing multilateral principles".

"Multilateral norms and rules of the game are ignored and unilateral or bilateral actions are taken instead," he added.

The most recent conflict between APEC member countries was the automobile trade dispute between Japan and the United States.

Other bilateral disputes remain in sectors such as aviation, photographic film and telecommunications.

Suhadi explained that the EPG has proposed a dispute mediation service to complement dispute-settlement procedures of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO).

Unlike WTO's procedures which rely on arbitration, he said, the proposed service would be voluntary in nature and would aim at seeking a way out which could be accepted by both parties.

"The mediation service would not determine who wins or loses, but would encourage both countries to accept the interests of one another and seek a way out together," he said, adding that such a service should be conducted on a confidential basis.

He said the proposed service would be an alternative for conflicting countries that were reluctant to bring their problems to WTO, whose dispute-settlement procedures may seem ambiguous or if the dispute in question was not regulated by WTO.

50 percent

Suhadi said other issues discussed in the EPG meeting included an action agenda to carry out the commitments reached during the APEC meeting in Bogor last November.

The EPG, he said, has made a list of "substantial steps" to be taken by APEC ministers and leaders during the Osaka meeting in November.

The steps cover the fields of trade liberalization, trade and investment facilitation, development and technical cooperation and macro-economic and monetary cooperation.

Suhadi said the EPG has also proposed to accelerate by 50 percent the commitments and tariff reduction timetables reached in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

"The '50 percent rule' requires countries to meet their timetables in half the time of their present commitments," he said.

The EPG has so far met twice in Japan and Canada this year and will meet again in China next month and Brunei in September.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. (pwn)