Soeharto concerned over trade rows in Asia-Pacific

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)