U.S. asks Asia-Pacific to do more on services
JAKARTA (JP): The United States stepped up its pressure on countries in the Asia-Pacific region to open up their services sector, liberalize their procurement markets and eliminate bribery practices.
Addressing the American Chamber of Commerce yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that the country will bring those issues to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) upcoming ministerial conference in this December.
"We believe that the Singapore WTO ministerial meeting should commit to implementing the Uruguay Round and concluding a round of the so-called unfinished business, particularly in services," Christopher said.
He was here to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum -- in which the United States is a dialogue partner -- and the ASEAN Post Ministerial meetings that ended yesterday.
Christopher underscored the importance of Indonesia in ASEAN and the importance of the grouping to the United States. He noted that two-way trade between his country and ASEAN surpassed $100 billion last year.
"Indonesia is the largest market in the group, which is rapidly growing. Indonesia is a key focus of American agencies which are to promote American economic interests in the region," Christopher said.
He noted that the United States and ASEAN will both benefit from reaching agreements in 1997 that embrace standards of openness in two key service sectors, telecommunications and financial services.
Negotiations in both sectors have been slow. According to the developed countries, most developing countries are not making a significant commitment to opening up the sectors.
Christopher noted that the upcoming WTO meeting should also begin to set priorities for the early 21st century. He suggested that the WTO reduce or eliminate tariffs on high-tech products and move forward on the comprehensive liberalization of government procurements.
"The U.S. has a very strong interest in opening procurement markets in this region and around the world. And definitely we will make that a priority," Christopher said.
He suggested that the United States and ASEAN work closely through the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum -- in which the United States and six of the seven ASEAN countries are members -- to encourage greater transparency in government procurement.
In most developing countries, government procurements tend to favor domestic products over imported ones and bidding practices for government projects are often not transparent.
"We are now focusing on transparency in bidding procedures, especially in government procurement contracts. We will be doing that through the WTO and APEC," Christopher said.
He again stressed that the WTO meeting should address the relationship between trade and core labor standards, a proposal vehemently opposed by developing countries, including those belonging to ASEAN.
"We recognize that different countries have different comparative advantages and different stages of development, including different wage levels. But we believe that there are ways to expand trade and protect workers at the same time," he argued.
Developing countries have opposed efforts to link labor standards with trade issues, contending that they could blunt their comparative edge.
Christopher also called on Asian countries, those in ASEAN in particular, to confront the reality of illicit payments for the sake of transparent competition across the board.
He noted that bribery practices in a number of Asian countries have caused tens of billions dollars in losses to U.S. firms operating in the region.
The U.S. and its major trading partners in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have agreed to take "a concrete and meaningful step" to stop illicit payments by their firms.
"This is a provision of criminal transnational bribery of public officials... We will press all of our major trading partners and competitors in OECD to carry out their commitments through their national legislations," Christopher said.
He then urged ASEAN countries, whose economies have entered the world market, to take tougher measures against the rampant violation of intellectual property rights.
"I urge ASEAN to toughen controls on intellectual property rights, to reach an agreement on financial services, to open up telecommunications competition, to support air transport throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and develop fair and consistent guidelines for government procurement contracts," Christopher said. (rid)