[asia-apec 513] 1999 Anti-APEC Activities Announced

[Gatt Watchdog]

Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC Monitoring Group
PO Box 1905
Otautahi (Christchurch) 8015
Aotearoa/New Zealand
Fax 64 3 3668035
Email gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz

MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE

 13 July 1998

 1999 Anti-APEC Activities Announced

The Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC Monitoring Group today announced details of its
programme of education and action to challenge the Government's hosting of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in 1999 and educate New
Zealanders on the issues.

"Our experience of free trade and investment and free market policies here in
New Zealand tells us that APEC is wrong.  We plan to expose and oppose APEC
and the aggressive free trade and investment agenda which it promotes. Its
underlying model of development denies communities the right to determine our
own future, and advances the government of big business, by big business for
big business. New Zealand ministers are currently using APEC to justify its
support for Business Roundtable demands for zero tariffs and privatising the
producer boards," says Leigh Cookson, a spokesperson for the group.

Public fora and other educational activities are scheduled around each of the
Senior Officials Meetings (SOM) to be held in Wellington (February),
Christchurch (April/May), and Rotorua (August), as well as a two-day
conference around the time of the APEC Leaders Summit in Auckland (September).

"The hard business of APEC happens at the SOMs which coordinate the working
programme, negotiate the wording of documents and prescript documents for
Ministerial meetings.  Our February forum in Wellington will focus on the
human costs to workers of the APEC agenda.  The alternative forum in Rotorua
in August will focus on forestry and fisheries - two highly sensitive sectors
which have been targetted for early voluntary liberalisation at last year's
APEC meetings," she said.

The Auckland conference in September will have a strong focus on the
connections between our own experience of the 'New Zealand experiment' and
the regional and global drive towards economic liberalisation being promoted
by APEC. There will be a major emphasis on alternatives to the 'free market'
model.

"We are told there is no alternative - but that is a lie.  There is nothing
inevitable about globalisation - it is being driven by identifiable players
to advance the interests of an economic elite, especially the transnational
corporations that dominate the global economy.  More and more people in this
country are seeing that the free market and open economy do not deliver."

Since the 1994 APEC Summit in Indonesia, the Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC
Monitoring Group has been involved in ongoing research, education and media
work on APEC.  Members of the group have attended alternative meetings on APEC
held parallel with APEC Summits in Jakarta (1994), Osaka/Kyoto (1995), Manila
(1996) and Vancouver (1997) as well as monitoring the official APEC meetings
and their impact on the cities that have hosted the events.

"APEC is not just about free trade.  There are many other reasons why New
Zealanders should oppose APEC and its twisted logic.  There's the secretive,
anti-democratic way in which it functions. There's the $50 million or so
budgeted for the 1999 APEC Summit coming at a time of continued cuts to
health, education, welfare and other sectors.  There's the massive disruption
that will be caused to Auckland during the Summit next September.  And there's
the package of extremist market reforms which it promotes which people right
around the country are already grimly familiar with through Rogernomics,
Ruthanasia, and Jennycide", said Ms Cookson.

"We are not calling for the reform of APEC.  We believe that the economic
model which it promotes is fundamentally flawed and that the deep faith in the
free market which APEC's supporters cling to is misguided and dangerous.  It
is promoting greater gaps between rich and poor, and a race to the bottom to
compete in a global economy being reshaped for the interests of a few.  This
is a recipe for social, environmental, economic and political disaster," Ms
Cookson added.

The group has already started an education campaign on APEC to educate the
public and to counter the "good news hype" of the government and business
sectors.

For further comment contact Leigh Cookson (Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC
Monitoring Group) ph: (03) 3662803 (w)