The Philippines inherits APEC nightmare

The Philippines inherits APEC nightmare

By Peter Starr

OSAKA, Japan (AFP): With Asia-Pacific leaders agreeing to free
trade and investment in 15 sectors over the next 25 years, the
Philippines has inherited a nightmare in having to bring together
more than a thousand different plans for concrete actions
starting in 1997, officials say.

The Philippines, which assumed the chair of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at the end of last week's
annual meeting of trade and foreign ministers in Osaka, is not
wasting time -- an official said it had already scheduled a
preparatory meeting in Singapore for next month.

In addition to nine principles, the "action agenda" adopted at
the APEC summit over the weekend provides a detailed framework
for the group's 18 members in drawing up individual "action
plans" over the coming year.

These individual steps are to form part of a master plan to be
submitted to next year's summit in Subic Bay, the site of a
former U.S. military base which the Philippine government is now
promoting as a special trade zone.

"Action plans will contain specific and concrete details with
time frames for the near to medium term while outlining the basic
direction towards 2010 in the case of industrialized economies
and 2020 in the case of developing economies," the blueprint
said. As well as reiterating the deadlines set last year, it said
the plans would be implemented from January of 1997.

Specific sectors targeted are tariffs, non-tariff measures,
services, investment, standards, customs, intellectual property
rights, competition policy, government procurement, deregulation,
rules of origin, dispute mediation, business mobility, the
Uruguay Round of trade talks and information gathering.

The Osaka Action Agenda has guidelines in each of the 15
sectors for the agreed "concerted unilateral approach" to be
taken as members prepare their individual plans. Initial actions,
largely modest "downpayments" ranging from accelerated tariff
cuts to deregulation measures, were announced by each APEC leader
at the weekend summit.

But the agenda also includes details of collective actions,
both with existing APEC bodies and other institutions. So instead
of just 18 action plans in 15 different sectors, the number of
programs is much higher.

Philippine President Fidel Ramos told reporters after meeting
the other Asia-Pacific leaders Sunday that the number of plans to
be submitted to next year's summit was daunting -- estimated at
anywhere between 1,100 and 1,500.

"It was made very clear to me that we must make sure that the
Osaka Action Agenda will be converted into an action plan that
will be do-able in 1996," Ramos said. "We have given the
assurance that we will do that."

A senior official from one APEC member said that putting
together such a multitude of plans over the coming year would be
a "nightmare" for any country let alone the Philippines, one of
the group's poorest members.

"People think Ramos is genuinely committed. But not everyone
has the resources of Japan," he said, referring to Japanese
chairmanship of APEC which has won considerable praise from other
members over the past year.

Fred Bergsten, the American economist who has chaired an
advisory group to APEC leaders over the past two years, said the
group faced two challenges before leaders hold their fourth
annual summit in the Philippines.

The first will be "getting national governments to come
forward" with concrete action plans, he said, adding that, in
practice, "a few countries" would have to take the lead to
encourage others to do likewise.

Bergsten said the second challenge would be for APEC to play a
leading role at the ministerial meeting of the World Trade
Organization in Singapore at the end of next year. "I really do
think APEC can become a leader in the world trading system," the
economist said.

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.