Vietnam eyes early APEC membership

Vietnam eyes early APEC membership

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam said yesterday that it hoped to become
a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
soon, but fell short of predicting its accession at the group's
summit later this month.

"We think that Vietnam becoming a full member of APEC fits the
purpose of the organization and the interests of related
countries," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

"When Vietnam joins APEC still depends on the decision of the
member countries," he said. "But we hope it will happen soon."

A senior Philippine official and former trade minister told
Reuters on Wednesday that membership of the forum could be
expanded to countries such as Vietnam as early as this month's
meeting in Manila.

The moratorium on APEC membership expires this month and the
issue of extension is to be discussed at the APEC ministerial
meeting beginning Nov. 22. The APEC leaders' summit will be held
on Nov. 25.

The Philippines, the current APEC chair holder, has said it
does not want to see an extension of the moratorium on
membership.

But it has indicated it would like see the adoption of
admission criteria, which are thought to include geographical
location and a display of commitment to trade liberalization.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that communist Vietnam
was an Asia-Pacific country and a member of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and had carried out a raft of
economic and other reforms.

Vietnam became the seventh member of the formerly non-
communist ASEAN group last year and has set up an office to work
on meeting the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) goal of reducing
tariffs on thousands of goods to between zero and five percent.

The target date for AFTA to come into effect is in 2003, but
Vietnam has been granted a special three-year grace period to
become fully integrated.

Eleven countries have applied to join APEC, which currently
groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New
Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
and the United States