U.S. wants Asia-Pacific to make 'downpayment'

U.S. wants Asia-Pacific to make 'downpayment'

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The United States called on Asia Pacific nations yesterday to make a "downpayment" on their commitment to trade liberalization at a trade summit in Japan later this year.

U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Jeffrey Garten told reporters at the end of a visit to Malaysia that Washington wanted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to come up with an ambitious plan at the Osaka summit in November.

"Generally speaking, the U.S. wants an ambitious plan because if you aim low, the results are usually low," he said.

Washington wanted the 18 members of APEC to "agree on a blueprint for trade liberalization in the early part of the 21st century", Garten said.

"We would also like to see a downpayment...we want to see countries make a commitment," he added.

"There is a lot of skepticism that together the APEC countries are going to get beyond the rhetorical level," Garten said.

At last year's summit in Bogor, Indonesia, APEC agreed to work toward an Asia Pacific Free Trade Area by the year 2020.

The Osaka summit is meant to design a "road map" by which APEC members will reach their goal.

APEC groups Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), all of whose members except Vietnam belong to APEC, has agreed to implement an ASEAN Free Trade Area by the year 2003 at the latest.

"For us, ASEAN is the motive for trade liberalization in APEC," Garten said.

Noting that more than two-thirds of the U.S. trade deficit is with Asia, he said: "There is tremendous amount of pressure in the U.S. to increase exports to Asia."

Garten said ASEAN would probably become the second biggest market, after Mexico, for American goods among the newly emerging industrialized countries in the next five years.

He said ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam, was the latest addition to a U.S. top 10 list of emerging markets.

"This is a market of 400 million people with a GDP of US$500 billion and our projections are that the GDP will double in five years.

"This means that with the exception of Mexico, ASEAN will be the largest destination for American exports of the 10 emerging markets," Garten said.

He said the United States will raise investment in, and double exports to, ASEAN in the next five years, making the region its largest emerging market trade partner after Mexico, a senior U.S. official said yesterday.

"The U.S. exported goods worth $16 billion to ASEAN in 1989 and the figure rose to $32 billion in 1994. We expect the figure to double again in the next five years," U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Jeffrey Garten said.

"We want to bring more U.S. firms, such as those producing car parts and consumer goods to the region and expose them to several countries at once," Garten said.

Washington is also looking at helping ASEAN upgrade its the skills of its workforce, Garten said.