[asia-apec 1261] ABAC on APEC

[APEC Monitoring Group]

            Business Challenges Apec Leaders To Speed Up
           
 Press Release  ABAC 24/08/99 17:16:00 
            
In a frank and challenging report, business leaders from around the 
            APEC region say individual member economies are not moving fast 
            enough to achieve their deadlines for free and open trade and 
            investment.
            The ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council) report to the APEC chair, 
            New Zealand’s Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jenny Shipley, was made 
            public this afternoon (3pm New Zealand time). The report sets down 
            the directions the Asia-Pacific business community believes APEC 
            must follow, and includes a series of specific recommendations. 
            ABAC chair, New Zealand’s Philip Burdon (a former New Zealand Trade 
            Minister and Chair of Asia 2000) says APEC has achieved a great deal 
            in the past ten years.
            “APEC has become a major force for economic reform and growth, 
            having put in place far-reaching programmes for trade 
            liberalisation, economic and technical cooperation between members, 
            and the removal of red tape and unnecessary costs to business,” Mr 
            Burdon says. 
            “But like all processes which move by consensus and which are 
            subject to the pressures of domestic politics, APEC has at times 
            lost sight of its own goals.”
            Today’s report challenges APEC leaders to work more vigorously to 
            achieve their agreed free trade and investment goals by 2010 for 
            developed economies and 2020 for developing economies. It also calls 
            on APEC leaders to work together in the WTO to achieve comprehensive 
            multilateral trade liberalisation.
            “Trade and investment liberalisation is vital to improve the 
            competitiveness of our businesses, to encourage economic growth, and 
            to increase the welfare of our communities,” the report says, 
            emphasising that the dates of 2010 and 2020 are coming up fast, 
            particularly for developed member countries.
            It says individual action plans by member economies are “not 
            ambitious enough, in content or timeframe, to meet the goals of free 
            trade and investment by 2010/2020”.
            ENDS