S'pore asks U.S. to back a Pacific Five trade pact
S'pore asks U.S. to back a Pacific Five trade pact
WASHINGTON (Reuters): Singapore Trade Minister Trade George Yeo urged the United States on Tuesday to build on its separate free trade talks with Chile and Singapore to craft a Pacific Five trade pact that would also include Australia and New Zealand.
In a speech to the Institute for International Economics, Yeo said the cross-regional trade agreement should also eventually include South Korea, making it a P6 pact.
A free trade agreement covering the United States, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Australia has been discussed for a number of years, but "it needs a political push from the new (U.S.) administration," Yeo said.
Former President Bill Clinton launched separate free trade talks with Singapore and Chile last fall but was unable to conclude an agreement with either country before leaving office.
A P5 or P6 trade agreement would build on a trend of bilateral and regional free trade agreements in the absence of a new round of global trade talks.
Yeo said Singapore remained strongly committed to launching new trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization as soon as possible, however.
The third round of U.S.-Singapore talks will be held in Singapore in May. The two countries are also conducting some negotiations using two-way video equipment, Yeo said.
Remaining differences are "relatively minor," and a final agreement could be reached soon, Yeo said, adding that he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick had "almost a complete meeting of the minds" on Monday.
On the sensitive issues of labor and the environment, which are important to many Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, Yeo said he told Zoellick that Singapore would go "along with whatever he's comfortable with."
Crafting a formula to handle those issues is one of the biggest challenges Zoellick faces this year as he tries to persuade Congress to give the Bush administration the authority to negotiate new multilateral trade pacts.
Most Republicans oppose labor and environmental provisions in trade pacts. They worry that developing countries will view the measures as protectionist and be scared away from talks.
Zoellick told The Washington Post in a story published on Tuesday that he was studying an approach used in a free trade pact between Canada and Chile. It provides for monetary fines instead of sanctions on exports if the countries fail to honor labor and environmental commitments.
Yeo said it was still too early to predict whether WTO members would launch a new round of trade talks at the group's next ministerial meeting, in Qatar in November.
He urged supporters of new global talks to use the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Shanghai in October and similar meetings to set the stage for a new round within a year.
U.S. officials also say they hope the APEC summit meeting, which China is holding for the first time, will generate momentum toward new WTO negotiations.