[asia-apec 485] trade liberalisation to continue within APEC

[Labour Resource Centre]

23 June 98, The Star, Malaysia
Trade liberalisation to continue within Apec
By Jack Wong and Stephen Then 



KUCHING: The aim of liberalising trade and opening up more markets within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) grouping will not be aborted even though economic and financial problems are plaguing many of its members. 

However, a voluntary and flexible approach will be adopted to achieve the liberalisation objective, taking into account the various problems faced by those affected by the turmoil. 

The Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said this yesterday and said no member economies within Apec have indicated their intention to pull out of the liberalisation process even though they have been badly hit by the economic and financial uncertainties. 

"This meeting is being held at a time when the east Asian region is undergoing financial and economic turmoil. 

"There are certainly fears that when countries find themselves constrained in terms of capacity to generate growth, the domestic growth will be shrinking. 

"And this will hinder their capacities to open up markets as they fear competition coming in to marginalise them or push them out of the domestic market. 

"There are also fears that because of this turmoil, everybody will be more inward-looking and not want to touch this area of liberalisation, so the question of impact of trade liberalisation must be thoroughly examined. 

"There are benefits and heavy costs involved in opening up markets and we must look at both sides," she said during a press conference. 

Rafidah said no Apec member economies had said anything about not liberalising because of their problems but they would like to have the flexibility. 

"The basic principal to consider is voluntarism and in Apec, whatever programmes we undertake must be based on flexibility. 

"This must take into account different levels of developments in member nations," she stressed. 

Rafidah said some member economies had stated that they could be more liberal in certain sectors and thus, flexibility must be allowed. 

She said the meeting will consider how to ensure enough critical mass to get the early voluntary sectoral liberalisation exercise moving, adding that Apec must be realistic is this aim. 

"Apec economies cannot talk about liberalisation without due consideration to Asia's economic problems since half of Apec is Asia," she said. 

The minister however, said the trade ministers were confident of agreeing on some decisions to present to the Apec leaders (during their summit) end of this year. 

On Malaysia, she said the country subscribed to the principle of progressive liberalisation and it has done so by increasing foreign equity in several sectors. 

Rafidah added that the trade ministers will also discuss how Apec can help Asia overcome the market turmoil, deliberate on electronic commerce and take stock of the progress on individual and collective action plans as well as matters relating to the WTO. 

She said developments in Japan had a big impact on the world but Malaysia did not want to tell Japan what to do as she was confident Japan would take the correct measures to revive its economy. 



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