[asia-apec 1310] Fw: Washington Post on APEC 99 Summit

[APEC Monitoring Group]

>>APEC Set On Plan for Financial Markets
>>                   Group to Support New Trade Talks
>>
>>                   By Clay Chandler
>>                   Washington Post Foreign Service
>>                   Monday, September 13, 1999; Page A16
>>
>>                   AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Sept. 12 (BThis island nation
>>takes
>>                   considerable pride in the steely discipline of its
>>yachting team, which gained
>>                   worldwide fame by capturing the most recent America's
>>Cup trophy.
>>
>>                   This weekend, however, New Zealand has been thrust
>>into the
>>                   international spotlight by a more fractious crew, one
>>that rarely charts a
>>                   common course. As it launched its seventh annual
>>summit here in the "City
>>                   of Sails," the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic
>>Cooperation (APEC)
>>                   forum is adrift, divided not only over short-term
>>crises, such as the recent
>>                   violence in East Timor, but over long-range economic
>>issues that the group
>>                   was created to address.
>>
>>                   In a declaration to be released Monday, drafts of
>>which were leaked to
>>                   press, APEC members are expected to affirm their
>>commitment to "open,
>>                   transparent and well-governed financial markets."
>>
>>                   The nations also are likely to declare support for a
>>new round of
>>                   negotiations by the World Trade Organization to lower
>>tariffs on goods
>>                   and services.
>>
>>                   Beyond such vague pronouncements, however, there is
>>little consensus
>>                   among this group, which accounts for 45 percent of the
>>world's economic
>>                   output. On trade, where most members had the greatest
>>hope for common
>>                   action, APEC has made only modest progress toward
>>goals it set for itself
>>                   in recent years.
>>
>>                   In 1994, APEC leaders pledged to eliminate barriers to
>>trade and
>>                   investment among developed economies in 2010 and among
>>developing
>>                   economies in 2020. Those targets now seem unrealistic
>>to many members.
>>                   No new trade liberalization initiatives are on the
>>agenda this year.
>>
>>                   Despite expressions of support for new WTO talks, U.S.
>>and Japanese
>>                   leaders are at odds on how those talks should proceed.
>>At last year's
>>                   meeting Japan blocked a proposal to cut tariffs that
>>protect its fish and
>>                   forestry industries.
>>
>>                   The United States, meanwhile, retains tariffs or
>>quotas on textiles and many
>>                   agricultural goods, and has relied on anti-dumping
>>laws to fight steel and
>>                   other imports. And recently imposed restrictions on
>>imports of lamb are an
>>                   enormous irritant here in New Zealand and neighboring
>>Australia.
>>
>>                   During the Asian financial crisis, APEC choked, ceding
>>leadership to
>>                   officials at the International Monetary Fund and U.S.
>>Treasury
>>                   Department. Now, with many of the Asian economies
>>beginning to
>>                   recover, the group still has arrived at no common view
>>about the what
>>                   caused the catastrophe and has taken few concerted
>>measures to prevent
>>                   it from happening again.
>>
>>                   In a speech today at a meeting of business leaders
>>from around the region,
>>                   President Clinton warned against "complacency" on
>>economic matters.
>>                   "There is still hard work to be done and a great deal
>>to be won on the eve
>>                   of this new millennium," he said. Clearly, though, the
>>rebound of stock and
>>                   currency markets throughout the region has slowed
>>efforts in many APEC
>>                   societies to press ahead with painful restructuring
>>programs.
>>
>>                   Late this evening, the group achieved a legitimate
>>breakthrough on the East
>>                   Timor question, as a core group led by the United
>>States and Australia
>>                   worked out an arrangement to send a multinational
>>peace-keeping force to
>>                   the region to halt repression of pro-independence
>>groups in the region. But
>>                   the APEC meetings here served more as the backdrop
>>than the vehicle for
>>                   that accord. To the last, the decision drew resistance
>>from key APEC
>>                   members, notably Japan, which has extensive business
>>and political ties to
>>                   Indonesia, and China, which views East Timor through
>>the prism of its own
>>                   dealings with independence advocates from Taiwan to
>>Tibet.
>>
>>                   When Clinton was the host for a meeting of APEC heads
>>of state in Seattle
>>                   in 1993, he boldly proclaimed the gathering to be of
>>historic significance.
>>                   After a bonding session with other leaders in a native
>>American hut,
>>                   Clinton spoke in sweeping terms of a new era in which
>>shared interests
>>                   between the United States and nations around the
>>Pacific region surpassed
>>                   its traditionally strong bonds with Europe.
>>
>>                   In hindsight, many early APEC boosters now say, it was
>>naive to expect
>>                   so much from an organization encompassing nations as
>>dissimilar as the
>>                   United States, Russia, Vietnam, Chile, Paupa New
>>Guinea and Brunei.
>>                   Business executives, especially, are losing patience.
>>APEC's own business
>>                   advisory council recently warned that APEC had "lost
>>sight of its goals"
>>                   and needed to make "more serious and substantial
>>commitments" to open
>>                   stock and currency markets.
>>
>>                   "I think [the APEC leaders] are conscious of the all
>>the criticisms about of
>>                   the relative lack of progress," said Helmut Sohmen,
>>president of Hong
>>                   Kong-based Worldwide Shipping Agency and chairman of a
>>prominent
>>                   group of Pacific Rim executives. "That's made all the
>>personalities acutely
>>                   aware that they can't have another meeting this year
>>where they don't
>>                   accomplish anything." But what many business
>>executives hoped would be
>>                   the marquee achievement of this year's gathering--the
>>announcement of an
>>                   agreement between Washington and Beijing on terms of
>>China's admission
>>                   to the WTO--has yet to materialize.
>>
>>                   In the absence of substantive achievements, the APEC
>>gathering has taken
>>                   on a festival air. Proceedings began with a troupe of
>>two dozen
>>                   bare-chested Maori performers who chanted and waved
>>spears in a
>>                   traditional "haka" welcome. The leaders joined in
>>pressing noses, a
>>                   customary native greeting.
>>
>>                   The sessions also have become a lightening rod for
>>protest. Practitioners of
>>                   Falun Gong, the sect banned in China, gathered in
>>nearby Victoria Park.
>>                   Supporters of independence for East Timor clashed with
>>Indonesian
>>                   students protesting international condemnation of
>>their country.
>>
>>                   Then there are local merchants looking for a bit of
>>publicity. Among the
>>                   favorites this year: a billboard by the dockside
>>eatery Euro advertising its
>>                   cigar room: "Call us old fashioned, Mr. President, but
>>we prefer smoking
>>                   them."
>>
>>                   Perhaps a more thoughtful slogan was chalked on a
>>blackboard outside the
>>                   Loaded Hog pub, which offered an alternative
>>interpretation of the
>>                   acronym APEC: A Perfect Excuse for a Cold one.
>>
>>
>>                            ) Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

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