[asia-apec 487] GATT Watchdog Media Release - APEC 99

[Gatt Watchdog]

GATT Watchdog
PO Box 1905
Otautahi (Christchurch) 8015
AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
Email: gattwd at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz


MEDIA RELEASE

26/06/98
 
For Immediate Use

Coalition Government Told To Cut APEC Funding As Crisis Continues

With the Shipley government set to review its short-term spending
commitments "if circumstances require it", after next Monday's cabinet
briefing in light of the impact of the Asian economic downturn, GATT Watchdog
is calling on the government to pull the plug on spending on what it
describes as a "hideously expensive pre-election photo opportunity" - APEC
1999.

"It is quite clear that we cannot afford to host the APEC meetings in 1999.
That would be at least $50 million (according to government estimates) less
for the free market slash-and-burn brigade to try to snatch from the
increasingly underfunded health, welfare and education budgets," says a GATT
Watchdog spokesperson, Aziz Choudry.

"We can't afford APEC financially, economically or socially. Hundreds of jobs
 in the clothing and autoassembly sectors have been brutally sacrificed in
 just the last few weeks as a result of the government's lemming-like desire
 to lead the world in throwing open its economy."

"The same Asian economic crisis which has prompted Monday's briefing and
contributed to New Zealand's economic woes cannot be divorced from the narrow
 economic agenda which underpins APEC.  The economies of countries throughout
 the Asia-Pacific which have adopted the market model and been made dependent
 on the unregulated flow of international capital are falling like
 dominoes."
 
"These are testing times, as the Prime Minister rightly says - so it is high
time that the government faced the fact that our current sorry state is in
large part due to the extremist free trade, free market policies which have
put us at the mercy of a globalised economy over which we have no
control."

"Mrs Shipley said the Coalition Agreement allowed for policies to be varied
if economic circumstances warranted it.   She said : 'We will consider all
options if necessary.'  Let's see if she can live up to this
statement."

"Critics of APEC, the GATT/WTO and globalisation have long warned about the
vulnerability of domestic economies in a globalised world.  But the
government continues to deny that there is a downside to the more-market
madness it tries to pass off as sound economic and social policy."

"The whole free market model is under increasing threat from the economic
crisis which eclipsed last year's APEC meetings in Vancouver and shows few
signs of ending", claimed Mr Choudry. "But the freemarket fundamentalists
have never let the facts get in the way of their fanciful claims that the
market knows best".

"The promises of economic activity generated by the holding of an APEC Summit
 to the host country and city are always overestimated and the costs of
 holding them underestimated. The Canadian public were told that APEC 1997
 would be a modest affair, but the costings told another story. Estimates put
 the total price of the APEC Summit at C $57.4 million, including around C
 $15 million for security alone.  A Tourism Vancouver study, expecting larger
 numbers than the actual figure of around 4700 delegates and 2700 media put
 economic spinoffs from the meetings at $23 million in visitor spending,
 taxes and wages.  APEC 1999 will be nothing more than a hideously expensive
 pre-election photo-opportunity," he said.

For further comment, contact: Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog ph 03 3662803 (w)