[asia-apec 1459] The Melbourne Age 7 June 2000 - APEC

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Apec affirms faith in liberalisation    

By TIM COLEBATCH 
DARWIN 
Wednesday 7 June 2000 
 

The trade ministers of the member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (Apec) have recommitted their countries to a broad-based round of negotiations to liberalise world trade, including abolishing farm export subsidies and further reducing tariffs on manufactures.

On the opening day of their meeting in Darwin, ministers and senior officials from Apec member countries also agreed to impose a moratorium on tariffs on electronic commerce, pending any global agreement on e-commerce.

The 21 Apec members - including the United States, China, Japan, Russia and Indonesia - are holding their first meeting to launch a new trade round since the collapse of the Seattle negotiations last year. Australian officials saw the meeting, the most important trade gathering in Australia since Apec itself was launched in 1989, as a test of global commitment to a new round.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile, who is chairing the meeting, said last night ministers had recommitted to the same goals their leaders set when they met last year in Auckland.

"There's a very strong call coming out of this meeting to get on with the multilateral agenda, as the agenda that will ultimately provide the greatest benefits to the economies of the world in trade liberalisation," Mr Vaile said.

But he said ministers had also expressed concern that there should be no repeat of last year's fiasco in Seattle, when the agenda was "overloaded" by issues such as labor rights, the environment, competition policy and investment rules, raised by the United States and the European Union. "We must be sure that it (the agenda) is achievable," Mr Vaile said.

"It wasn't so much the protests or the process that caused Seattle to fail, as much as an overloaded agenda. Seattle was supposed to be the start, not the actual conduct, of the negotiations." Labor rights, he said, were an issue that belonged "on the margin of the negotiations, not at the centre".

Mr Vaile did not rule out Australia bidding to host next year's meeting of world trade ministers, now the likely occasion for launching the new round. 

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