[asia-apec 1464] The Age (Melbourne) on APEC

[APEC Monitoring Group]

WTO told by APEC to act now on tariffs    

By TIM COLEBATCH 
ECONOMICS EDITOR DARWIN 
Thursday 8 June 2000 

Trade ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) yesterday urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) not to wait for a formal commitment to a new trade round but to start preliminary work on further tariff reductions in manufacturing.

In a second initiative aimed at breaking the trade deadlock, Australia's Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, revealed that he has asked the WTO's director-general, Mike Moore, to convene a series of workshops around the world to bring together the countries at loggerheads on each of the critical issues outstanding, and try to reach agreement outside the official channels in Geneva.

He said Mr Moore had indicated considerable interest in the proposal, which could pave the way for ministers to repair the damage done when their Seattle talks intended to launch a new round collapsed last December.

A two-day meeting here of trade ministers and senior officials from APEC's 21 member countries concluded by urging an "early launch" of a new round of comprehensive negotiations to liberalise world trade. But although they urged countries to show "political will and flexibility" to settle their differences, ministers at the closing press conference made it clear that sharp divisions remain.

China's Trade Minister, Shi Guangsheng, bluntly rejected the controversial United States proposal for labor standards to be discussed in the WTO. Mr Shi said issues that were covered by other international organisations should be left to them, rather than taken up by the WTO.

The Deputy US Trade Representative, Richard Fisher, said there was no consensus at the meeting on how to deal with the issues at the heart of the deadlock and they had barely been discussed in the two days of talks.

Despite APEC's ambitious objective of achieving free trade and investment by 2010 in developed countries, its members no longer see it as a vehicle for trade liberalisation. Instead, the search for consensus led it to avoid the hard issues and settle for a bland communique{AAC} urging nations to settle differences to allow the serious work to start in the WTO.

Privately and publicly, some ministers agreed with the pessimistic forecast by Mr Moore here on Tuesday that it could be another 18 months before a new round is launched. The divisions exposed in Seattle - on labor standards, the environment, competition policy, investment rules, agricultural export subsidies, anti-dumping rules and the WTO's own processes - are still almost as wide six months later.

"We don't want a repeat of the missed opportunity of Seattle," Mr Vaile said. Mr Fisher agreed that an early start was not practicable, saying: "We have not yet cobbled together the work necessary to have a successful round."

But in a series of proposals to help release the logjam, the APEC ministers agreed to:

Impose a moratorium on tariffs on electronic commerce, pending the start of a new round. Mr Vaile said this would not mean that goods ordered over the Net would be tariff-free, only that business use of the Net itself would not be taxed.

Urge their governments to look at putting government information for business online, including explanations of procedures for government procurement and trade administration.

Work towards "paperless trading" between APEC economies, with China - the nation that invented paper almost 2000 years ago - agreeing to host a high-level seminar next year on how to replace bureaucratic paperwork with electronic forms.

Urge the WTO to start work on identifying existing levels of tariffs and other barriers to trade and manufactures, without waiting for ministers to send them a mandate for negotiations. This would not necessarily imply reduction in actual tariff levels since WTO negotiations focus on reducing agreed ceilings above which tariffs may not rise.

Provide "capacity building" support to poorer APEC members to help them use the WTO's procedures and implement trade liberalisation already agreed to. Poorer countries rarely take trade disputes to the WTO because they can't afford the legal processes.

Australia also confirmed that it would not take part in a new WTO initiative aimed at increasing market access for the 47 countries classified by the UN as the poorest of the poor. Senior officials say 94 per cent of exports from these countries already enter Australia duty free and Australia has already done what the US, Japan and the European Union now propose



 

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