[asia-apec 1456] Reuters story - APEC

[APEC Monitoring Group]

U.S. sees APEC political will for new trade talks

By Marie McInerney

DARWIN, Australia, June 5 (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday rising
regional confidence and economic strength could help Pacific Rim countries to
take the tough political decisions needed to launch a new round of global
trade talks.

U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Richard Fisher told reporters the United
States was ready to move on a new round of World Trade Organisation (WTO)
talks ``as quickly as our partners are able.''

WTO talks collapsed in Seattle last December over differences between the
United States and European Union, and between developing and industrial
countries over labour, the environment and anti-dumping issues, as violent
protests erupted outside.

Speaking ahead of a meeting in Darwin of trade ministers from the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Fisher said economies in the
region were stronger and more confident than at the time of the Seattle
meeting.

He said he sensed ``a firming of political will.''

``This confidence is critical to making the politically difficult decisions
which are necessary to an early launch of the new round,'' he told reporters
after a series of bilateral talks ahead of the June 6-7 multilateral meeting.

APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru,
the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and
Vietnam.

The APEC economies account for more than 60 percent of world gross domestic
product and 45 percent of global trade.

Fisher said APEC had taken the lead, at Japan's initiative, on developing new
programmes for capacity building and technical assistance to help developing
economies meet WTO obligations, and was it moving quickly on the accession of
China and Taiwan to the WTO.

There was also growing interest in the region in free trade agreements (FTAs)
which could play a positive role in global trade, albeit only those which
encouraged wider liberalisation.

``If it is an FTA which carves out agriculture, it's not an FTA,'' he said,
adding that a proposal for New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Chile and the
United States to form a free trade agreement as a possible catalyst for a new
WTO round was on the backburner.

``Ministers over the next two days will reaffirm commitments made in Auckland
(last year) to launch a new round, including the call for the elimination of
trade distorting agricultural export subsidies,'' he said.

Fisher rejected suggestions that the U.S. interest in APEC was fading and
said President Bill Clinton would attend the group's leaders' summit in
Brunei later this year.

``We are big supporters of APEC and we want to see this forum continue to
serve as a catalyst for the rest of the world,'' he said, noting its previous
leading role in a WTO information technology agreement and the completion of
trade talks in 1993.