[asia-apec 113] U.S. Set to Cut Tariffs, APEC Plans Show

[daga]

U.S. Set to Cut Tariffs, APEC Plans Show

by Jon Liden and Eduardo Lachica
Staff Reporters

The Asian Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13-14, 1996

The U.S. is offering to reduce its average tariff rate for products from
most other countries to 3.5% by 2004 from 4.9%, according to drafts of
proposals for trade and investment liberalization by members of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

A copy of these confidential plans was obtained by The Asian Wall Street
Journal Thursday, and an APEC official, who declined to be identified,
indicated that the plans were authentic.

U.S. trade officials declined to confirm the veracity of these drafts. They
pointed out, however, that offers like these "will be broadly evolving until
the APEC members sit down on the first day of the conference," says a
spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative.

The documents also indicated that the U.S. will guarantee that 51% of its
imports will be free of tariffs. In addition, the drafts show that the U.S.
is prepared to phase out its textile quotas by 2004. However, U.S. trade
analysts point out that the U.S. is already bound by law to complete a
phase-out of textile quotas by no earlier than Jan. 1, 2005. Moreover, U.S.
textile importers complain that 89% of the quotas will remain in place until
that date. Analysts note that any changes in the phase-out schedule have to
be approved by the U.S. Congress.

Apart from the Philippines, Australia, Hongkong, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea
and Singapore, the other major economies of the region have made only
general statements of intention to reach free trade by 2020 in their action
plans. The plans are part of a process agreed upon last year, whereby APEC
members will voluntarily lower trade barriers to reach their goal of free
trade, rather than to negotiate binding agreements.

The action plans have been kept confidential while the member countries
discuss how to align them into a formal plan by the time the APEC leaders'
meeting takes place in Subic, Philippines, in November. They were leaked to
news organizations by the Manila People's Forum on APEC, a coalition of
nongovernmental organizations.

The group said that it had recieved copies of the confidential action plans
from "officials close to the APEC process" who are concerned about the need
for public discussion of the trade-liberalization commitments made by the
member countries.

"Few, if any, of these action plans have been discussed and approved
democratically, either via popular referenda or by national legislative
mechanisms," said Walden Bello, a professor at the University of the
Philippines who represents the Forum. He said the plans would be posted on
the Internet within a few days.

Philippine APEC Secretariat officials were either unavailable for comment or
not willing to make any statements, but an official from the Philippine
Foreign Affairs Department said the action plans were only drafts in a
process that would lead to a final result in time for the APEC summit in
November, and that each country's commitments could not be judged on the
basis of these early drafts.

Dr. Bello says that the U.S. and Australia are still putting pressure on
APEC's members to come up with binding commitments that will move APEC
toward a free-trade area, undermining the agreement made in Osaka during
last year's leaders' meeting that made commitments voluntary and non-binding.

"We are not against trade liberalization, but it should be a pragmatic
process driven by the country's needs rather than the doctrinal line our
country is taking at the moment," said Mr. Bello. He said that while the
Philippines makes detailed commitments, countries such as Thailand and
Malaysia give only vague and uncommitted statements about intentions in
their action plans.

"Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are actively resisting
the pressure (from the U.S.), while the Philippines is trying to outdo the
other nations in its commitments," he said.
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation for Action Groups in Asia (DAGA)
96, 2nd District, Pak Tin Village
Mei Tin Road, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong
Tel : (852) 2691 6391/ 2691 1068 ext 54
Fax: (852) 2697 1912
E-mail: daga at hk.super.net  
----------------------------------------------------------------------