U.S. backs APEC mediation in trade disputes
U.S. backs APEC mediation in trade disputes
SAPPORO, Japan (AFP): The chairman of an advisory group to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum said yesterday that the United States was ready to promote a new multilateral approach to trade disputes.
Fred Bergsten, a former assistant treasury secretary in the Carter administration who now chairs the APEC eminent persons group (EPG), said he saw a "major role" for the forum in mediating in trade disputes which could reduce the pressure on Washington to rely on unilateral threats.
"The United States, based on its history of trade policy, will in fact strongly support the effort to have APEC cover additional issues, to have APEC develop a dispute-settlement process that will further expand the prospects for a multilateral response to these issues," he said.
Washington is "very supportive and indeed welcomes the possibility of having additional APEC rules," Bergsten added. "That would reduce substantially the risk of continued resort to these unilateral measures."
Speaking at a news conference after presenting a report to a meeting of senior APEC officials in Sapporo, he noted "an increasing number of very substantial trade disputes in the region.
"The most recent was, of course, between the United States and Japan on automobile trade. We know that more disputes are coming between the United States and Japan. But there are a lot of disputes among other countries.
WTO
"And we are in EPG are very concerned about the adverse effect of those disputes on the other countries in the region," he said.
Bergsten also noted that the dispute-settlement procedures of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) were limited.
"There are lots issues that are not covered by WTO," he said. "The WTO is highly legalistic. We think in this part of the world, it would be highly desirable to have a less formal, less confrontational kind of mechanism. That would be like mediation rather than arbitration."
Bergsten said it was "critically important" for APEC to move forward in implementing the declaration of APEC leaders in Indonesia last year calling for free and open trade and investment in the region by 2020.
Ippei Yamazawa, an economics professor at Hitotsubashi University who is the Japanese member of the EPG, said earlier that the recent dispute over auto trade between Tokyo and Washington heightened the need an APEC role.
"Bilateral problems are no longer something only two countries can resolve, " he told AFP. "I have heard a lot of calls from various countries for the creation of a dispute-mediation service. Mediation must be one of the major tasks to be carried out by APEC from now on.
"No one in the region can ignore the series of problems between Japan and the United States," he said.
While Japan and the United States managed to avert sanctions on Japanese cars with a last-minute compromise last week, other bilateral disputes remain in such sectors as aviation and photographic film.
As a first step, APEC needs to form a mechanism to involve third parties in bilateral disputes within the region. "It's very important to let all the members understand the need for a third- country mechanism," Yamazawa said.
Yamazawa also indicated that APEC would eventually have to formulate common rules for such a mediation service.
The idea of a "voluntary consultative dispute mediation service" was included in last year's declaration by APEC leaders. Such a service is expected to "supplement" the WTO.
The EPG, set up after the fourth meeting of APEC ministers in Thailand in 1992, played a major role in framing last year's declaration by APEC leaders and is expected to deliver another report in late August.
The group 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.