[asia-apec 493] Re: WTO: Japan sees APEC setting nasty precedent for next rou...

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From: "Mark Ritchie" <mritchie at iatp.org>
Subject: WTO: Japan sees APEC setting nasty precedent for next rou...
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>Subject: WTO: Japan sees APEC setting nasty precedent for next rou...
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>      Japan sees APEC setting nasty precedent for next round of **WTO**
talks  
>                             (Agence France-Presse; 06/24/98)
     
>     
>
>    KUCHING, Malaysia, June 24 (AFP) - APEC trade ministers headed home  
>Wednesday with an agreement to be "flexible" in early trade liberalisation  
>which failed to accommodate Japanese demands to exclude certain sectors.
>
>   Delegates to a two-day meeting of ministers said the United States put  
>intense pressure on developing members not to cave in to the Japanese
position, 
> despite frantic last-minute lobbying by Japan.
>
>   The upshot was that Japan was alone in voicing objections to a statement  
>issued by Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz on Tuesday.
>
>   And in a symbol of its isolation, Japan's Trade Minister Mitsuo
Horiuchi was 
> conspicuously absent from the joint ministerial news conference winding
up the 
> meeting Tuesday, represented by two officials instead.
>
>   Japanese officials say they still have more than four months to thrash
out  
>the final details of the "early voluntary sectoral liberalisation" plan
before  
>APEC leaders meet in Kuala Lumpur in November.
>
>   And with APEC trade officials already scheduled to meet again in
Malaysia in 
> September, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky herself conceded
that 
>it  was "way too early to devise a doomsday scenario about Japan's 
>participation"  in the final deal.
>
>   In the meantime, the Japanese side is arguing that its position is not  
>simply a refusal to open up trade in two politically sensitive sectors --
fish  
>and forest products which range from furniture to pulp, paper and printed  
>products -- but has wider global implications.
>
>   Malaysia's statement issued on behalf of APEC Tuesday is "prejudging the  
>modality" for the next round of global trade talks in the World Trade  
>Organisation (**WTO**), a senior Japanese official told AFP.
>
>   The official, who asked not to be named, said the United States had no  
>mandate to push for tariff cuts in APEC and was therefore trying to get the  
>sectoral approach adopted by the group and push this into the **WTO**.
>
>   But the quadrilateral group -- Japan along with Canada, the European
Union  
>and the United States -- have only agreed on a "broad-based" approach.
>
>   ASEAN members of APEC want to focus on the unfinished areas of
agriculture  
>and investment while Japan wants a "comprehensive" approach.
>
>   While this runs the risk of Japan coming under pressure to open
sensitive  
>areas such as agriculture, the official said this was preferable to the  
>sectoral approach as "we have a few concessions in our pocket" which could
be  
>used as part of a comprehensive negotiating strategy.
>
>   "It's a jungle now. I think the APEC spirit has been spoiled," he said.
>
>   Japan's main objection to Malaysia's statement is that it explicitly
says  
>that "all three measures" of trade liberalisation, facilitation and
cooperation 
> should be applied to "each" of the nine high-priority sectors.
>
>   The statement says this is "essential to maintain the mutual benefits
and  
>balance of interests" which leaders established in November last year when
they 
> selected the nine sectors at their last summit in Vancouver.
>
>   Japan argues that the Malaysian statement goes beyond an APEC
ministerial  
>agreement last year, which indicated greater bargainining ability with
members  
>offering, for example, greater facilitation in one sector in exchange for
less  
>liberalisation in another.
>
>   "Now the door has been closed," the Japanese official said.
>
>   US trade officials said the "emerging consensus" mentioned in the
Malaysian  
>statement involved eliminating tariffs by 2006 in most of the nine high- 
>priority sectors including fish and forest products.
>
>   The officials said APEC had also agreed to eliminate tariffs on  
>environmental goods and services, although the "end date" was not fixed.
>
>   Among the remaining sectors, the officials said tariffs on gems and  
>jewellery would be reduced to between zero and five percent by 2005, while  
>chemicals would be subjected to tariff harmonisation -- by 10 percent and
below 
> by 2001 and by 2004 for other rates.
>
>   In telecommunications, the ninth high-priority sector, APEC reached an  
>accord on mutual recognition arrangements during a ministerial meeting in  
>Singapore earlier this month.
>
>   ps/akp
>
>(Copyright 1998)
>
>                    _____via IntellX_____
>
>{A1:AgenceFrancePresse-0624.00742}   06/24/98
>
>
>
>
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Mark Ritchie, President
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