[asia-apec 1654] Australia-Singapore possible trade deal

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Singapore Straits Times 11/11/00

S'pore, Australia may enter free-trade talks 

An agreement to work on such a deal may come after the two PMs meet at the Apec summit next week 



By DOUGLAS WONG
IN BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 


SINGAPORE and Australia may launch negotiations for a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) at next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit here, sources said. 

The proposed FTA would be the sixth such pact to be considered by Singapore in the past year or so with fellow Apec members including Japan, Canada, Chile, New Zealand and Mexico. 

FTA deals are seen as vital supplementary tools in Apec's free-trade push. 

Trade officials from Singapore and Australia were tight-lipped on their potential FTA yesterday but sources said that an agreement to work on such a deal could come after Prime Ministers Goh Chok Tong and John Howard meet next week. 

Singapore-Australia trade was worth over A$8.2 billion (S$9 billion) last year, making Singapore Australia's seventh-largest trading partner. 

Two other Apec members -- New Zealand and Hongkong -- may also announce FTA plans, as the 21-member grouping continues with efforts to lower trade barriers regionally and globally. 

The New Zealand Parliament passed the FTA with Singapore this week, and it will be sealed by its two Prime Ministers in a ceremony next Tuesday, after the two countries announced their FTA plans at last year's Auckland Apec summit. 

Other FTA talks involving Singapore are at varying stages. 

Apec -- with members ranging from tiny Brunei to giants like China, the United States and Russia -- accounts for half of world trade, 60 per cent of global output and has its own goal of free and open trade by 2020. 

The target is to be achieved in two stages with developed economies such as the US and Japan opening their markets by 2010, followed by the developing member economies. 

Unlike the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where trade concessions are negotiated, Apec operates on a voluntary basis -- supplemented increasingly by bilateral FTAs. 

New Zealand and Hongkong said on Wednesday that they were holding exploratory talks on an FTA, which would be the special administrative region's first, and New Zealand's third. 

Australia had earlier declined to join New Zealand and Singapore in their FTA negotiations but, like other economies, has become warmer to such arrangements since last year's failed WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle. 

Australia and New Zealand, which have a long-standing FTA, both sought recently to secure links with Asean's FTA but that was put on hold because of political concerns. 

The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported yesterday that Australia has also sounded out Japan and South Korea on a deal. 

The paper said that an Australian FTA with Singapore would have particular benefits in the services sector. 

Apec senior officials yesterday ended preparations for the annual meeting of their foreign and trade ministers a day early, signalling consensus on Brunei's agenda of measures to boost the region's computer access, and to continue economic and technical cooperation. 

Ministers will begin their two-day meeting tomorrow to prepare the ground for the annual Apec summit of leaders next week.