[asia-apec 1467] Mark Vaile on APEC - WTO

[APEC Monitoring Group]

Media release
Australian Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile
Wednesday, June 7, 2000
MVT64/2000
APEC calls for early WTO round launch
APEC Trade Ministers meeting in Darwin have called for an early launch of a new WTO round.

Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, who chaired the meeting, said APEC had put the rest of the world on notice that new WTO trade talks should start as soon as possible.

Ministers agreed to several steps to add momentum to launching WTO talks, and to further increase economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, Mr Vaile said.

With negotiations on agriculture and services already underway in Geneva, APEC Trade Ministers called for work to begin on industrial tariffs in the WTO.

APEC wants to make sure that when a new WTO round is launched we can get down to business without the delays experienced in the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations which dragged on from 1986 to 1993. 

Securing market access gains quickly is critical to Australian exporters of farm products, manufactured goods and services," Mr Vaile said.

Other steps agreed by APEC Ministers included new technical assistance to developing APEC economies to help implement WTO agreements and to prepare for a new round. And APEC also made a major push on 'new economy' issues.

We wanted to clearly signal APEC's focus on e-commerce and the new economy with an APEC-wide moratorium on the imposition of customs duties on electronic transmissions until the next WTO Ministerial Conference," Mr Vaile said.

Other initiatives included: a new website - Biz.Apec.com - providing one-stop information for conducting business in the Asia-Pacific region; a new electronic reporting tool for APEC Individual Action Plans (e-IAPs) to facilitate on-line access to APEC's progress towards free and open trade; and steps within APEC towards "paperless trading" by placing government procurement, customs and quarantine information on-line.

APEC Ministers also discussed sub-regional trade arrangements. They agreed that they should be WTO consistent and in line with APEC goals of free and open trade and investment by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies," Mr Vaile said.


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