[asia-apec 175] Deadlock leaves Apec applicants out in the cold

[mario mapanao]

Deadlock leaves Apec applicants out in the cold
Ray Heath and Agencies in Singapore
South China Morning Post
Business Post, 19 October 1996

Senior officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum are
deadlocked over whether to lift a three-year moratorium on accepting new
members in November, casting doubts on the fate of 11 applicants.

Antonio Basilio, deputy chairman of the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) that
began yesterday in Manila, said the 18-member trade bloc still had to agree
on a set of criteria for accepting new members.

"Membership would be discussed in terms of criteria," Mr. Basilio said.

"It is possibly a three-step process, so there are three major decision
areas here.

"The first one of course is whether the moratorium is lifted or not."

He said the criteria would focus on several topics, including the
applicant's degree of interest, its proximity and its existing economic
links with current members.

Only after establishing the criteria would Apec economies deliberate on the
applications of the 11 economies: India, Macau, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru,
Russia, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Panama and Ecuador.

A handful of member-economies have suggested that if a decision was not
reached by the end of the three-day meeting, the moratorium should be
regarded as having expired.

Mr. Basilio said this would not mean automatic membership for the applicants.

He said the ban on membership was imposed to help members achieve Apec's
primary goal, namely the removal of trade barriers by 2020 for developing
members and 2010 for industrialised members.

The SOM is the fourth and last such meeting before the fourth Apec leader's
summit begins at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in November.

At the summit, Apec leaders are expected to approve the Manila Action Plan,
which will contain individual and collective plans for increasing trade and
investments among Apec members.

The Manila Action Plan has already come under fire.

The criticism follows the leaking of documents, earlier this month, that
showed some Asian members of Apec-- notably China, Japan and Malaysia-- were
prepared to make only limited and vaguely worded trade liberalisation
offers, while Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US had delivered much
more positive offers.

Yesterday, Mr. Basilio said substantial progress would be made at the Manila
summit.

He said that later versions of the Individual Action Plans submitted to Apec
had contained more specific offers than the earlier versions, which had been
leaked.

Apec members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the US.