Summit zooms in on security, economy

Summit zooms in on security, economy

Alan Clendenning, Associated Press/Santiago

Pacific Rim leaders held a second day of talks Sunday on moves to shore up global security and get rid of trade barriers seen as impediments to economic growth.

Before gathering for talks Sunday, leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum donned hand-woven Chilean woolen ponchos for an official photograph. It has become an annual tradition for the leaders to pose in local garb. Last year in Thailand, they wore silk shirts.

The leaders were expected to close their two-day summit by endorsing new security measures and World Trade Organization talks aimed at liberalizing trade for the 148 WTO member nations.

They will also decide whether to back a communique on trade and security issued by their trade and foreign ministers in the Chilean capital before the leaders arrived.

The ministers strongly supported the WTO negotiations and also proposed new counterterrorism measures to protect food stocks, commercial air flights and cargo shipments among APEC member countries.

The WTO talks collapsed last year in a dispute over reducing subsidies offered by rich countries to their farmers. But the negotiations resumed in July, and the push by APEC leaders to keep the momentum going is seen as important because the members' economies represent nearly half of the planet's trade.

APEC started in 1989 as a gathering to boost trade among Pacific Rim nations, but its focus has broadened to include security matters in recent years. Several APEC leaders have pointed out that with increased acts of terrorism around the globe, business and security have become inseparable.

Nuclear issues in Iran and North Korea, two nations in what U.S. President George W. Bush has branded an "axis of evil," dominated APEC leaders' attention along with trade and economic issues.

Bush met Saturday with leaders of China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, all partners with the United States in the stalled six-nation talks to persuade North Korea - which is not a part of APEC - to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

No timeframe has been set for the resumption of negotiations, though the United States is pushing for early next year.

Protests, many of them violent, marred the days leading up to the summit. But a small demonstration Saturday in downtown Santiago ended without incident.

On Friday, about 25,000 marched peacefully against Bush, the war in Iraq and the APEC summit in one of the largest protests in Chile since the military dictatorship ended in 1990.

Protesters say the push to expand free trade is little more than a ploy by rich nations and multinational corporations to boost profits, and doesn't give meaningful benefits to poor nations mired in misery.

A World Bank study estimates that a successful conclusion to the current round of WTO trade talks would help some 140 million people escape poverty while adding US$50 billion (euro38 billion) to the global economy by 2015.

The talks were launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001 and were supposed to be wrapped up by the end of this year. Everybody acknowledges that that deadline will be missed.