[asia-apec 1047] APEC - The Tripe Behind The Hype

[Gatt Watchdog]

(From "The Big Picture", February 1999, GATT Watchdog, PO Box 1905,
Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand)


Selling APEC To the Masses - The Tripe Behind the Hype - Aziz
Choudry

 "There is no downside to opening up world trade", Jim Bolger told the 1996

 APEC Trade Ministers meeting in Christchurch.  "All you have to do is

 overcome political barriers, in other words, attitudinal barriers".
 


 Ah yes, those "attitudinal barriers".  These must be the kinds of things that

 the much-publicised gaggle of press secretaries and others that make up the

 "communications" team in the Prime Minister's Office hope to deal to, as the

 minority government stumbles on further into 1999, and as Jenny Shipley

 celebrates over a year in the top job.
 


 The level of anxiety coming from officials as we move on through the year

 when New Zealand chairs APEC is almost tangible, going way beyond worries

 about Jenny Shipley's performance in Kuala Lumpur and whether

 Auckland has enough hotel rooms to cope next September.  With increasing

 scepticism about APEC's worth and relevance coming from media, business,

 political commentators and economists alike, selling APEC to New Zealanders,

 particularly Aucklanders, is a daunting task.  It must feel a bit like trying

 to sell tickets on the Titanic - after the iceberg has hit.
 


 The spin doctors assigned to APEC have their work cut out for them.  Many

 people have grown tired of the inflated hype that has characterised so many

 government pronouncements on international trade issues and market reforms

 for so long.  Some openly challenge the legitimacy and soundness of APEC as a

 forum for economic policy-making, and dispute the received wisdom of the free

 market's cheerleaders.  The PR wizards will certainly need to do far better

 than whoever scripted the outpourings of praise for the troubled forum that

 Shipley, McKinnon, Lockwood Smith and co. returned with from Malaysia.

 McKinnon unconvincingly described the APEC meetings as "remarkable", Smith

 called the outcome "an excellent response to the crisis". But the Weekend

 Australian's view rang closer to the truth -"an event that swings between the

 ominous and the ludicrous."
 


 In documents obtained under the Official Information Act, the government's

 "communications strategy and branding exercise" for APEC 1999 is outlined,

 which aims to quickly establish "an overall brand image in the market place",

 but "will not focus on the complex substance of the APEC process such as

 trade liberalisation or facilitation". True to form, there is no

 acknowledgement of the need for full, open, balanced debate about the

 benefits or otherwise of APEC and New Zealand's economic direction.   There's

 no sign of rethinking the economic model and looking at alternative options.
 


 Jenny Shipley is stressing the importance of "building broader support for

 APEC among the wider communities of which we are part" as a key theme for

 APEC 1999.  But her public statements and the government's overall APEC

 communications strategy merely echo the quiet desperation of APEC's true

 believers around the region.
 


 At the last two APEC Summits, held while the 'Asian' economic crisis deepened

 and broadened, Ministerial Meeting joint statements have only just stopped

 short of tacitly acknowledging that the forum's credibility is on the line.

 APEC faces a crisis of legitimacy as the economic agenda which underpins it

 is questioned, and countries become ambivalent about further trade and

 investment liberalisation.   The solution? More PR. In Vancouver ministers

 endorsed a public relations campaign because "support among the people of the

 region for continuing trade and investment liberalisation is essential".
 


 Last May, the Singapore-based APEC Secretariat called for proposals from

 communications consultants to help raise "understanding and support for

 liberalization". In Kuala Lumpur, behind all the rhetoric, the free trade and

 investment push - symbolised by the early voluntary sector liberalisation

 initiative - all but stalled, and APEC again failed to address an economic

 crisis which had by now assumed global proportions. Rather than deal with the

 crisis and reexamine the market model of economic development "[m]inisters

 tasked officials to develop effective communication strategies to build

 community understanding for liberalization" A "keynote seminar on

 communicating the impact of trade liberalization in Auckland in June 1999"

 was announced as part of this. This will not be a forum to discuss and debate

APEC's free trade, free market vision, but to help find new improved ways to

sell the message that APEC is good for us.
 


Back home, the PR contingent already looks like it badly needs help. Public

relations advice given to the Auckland City Council to sell APEC to the

public is almost laughable:  "don't provide information in a proactive way

until close to the event...the message should state that APEC is good (and

why)".



It's not hard to see why the public are being kept in the dark about the real

impact APEC will have on the city. After all, the government itself is waiting

for instructions from visiting delegations. In a "Questions and Answers on

APEC" document sent to the Council in September, the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and Trade says it won't know about the severity of the traffic

disruption, whether rubbish collection, mail and courier deliveries will be

affected during the Leaders' Summit until sometime in 1999.  Decisions on

these are all "subject to the security requirements of overseas delegations."

A comforting thought. Maybe they're waiting to see how many leaders,

especially Clinton, actually decide to come.
 


The government's spin doctors and the APEC TaskForce believe they can win

over our hearts and minds with a mix of saying nothing and swamping us with

gushy "messages" promoting this year's APEC circus. This could be

a major miscalculation on their part.



(Aziz Choudry works for GATT Watchdog on international trade issues
and their impact on New Zealand.  He recently returned from Kuala
Lumpur where he spoke at the Asia-Pacific Peoples Assembly, a
non-governmental forum on APEC and globalisation)