WORLD / Asia-Pacific
APEC ministers start talks on global trade
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-11-15 13:19
HANOI - Cabinet ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum began talks on Wednesday seeking ways to revive comatose global
trade talks and get their own Pacific rim free trade area off the drawing
board.
APEC foreign and trade ministers convened at Hanoi's spanking new,
German-designed US$270 million National Convention Centre in a modern
Hanoi suburb for Vietnam's international coming-out party.
Officials meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in
Hanoi November 15, 2006. Cabinet ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum began talks on Wednesday seeking ways to revive
comatose global trade talks and get their own Pacific rim free trade area
off the drawing board. [Reuters]
But the annual extravaganza that will culminate in Sunday's Leaders'
Summit began on a sour note after the US Congress failed to pass
legislation normalising trade ties with Vietnam, America's old Cold War
foe.
House Republican leaders had hoped to give Bush a strong send-off to
Hanoi by approving the bill, the final step in normalising trade
relations between the former war enemies but it failed again on Tuesday,
after being turned down the day before.
Officials prepared an agenda earlier this week that includes reviving the
Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July amid clashes
over subsidies and tariffs for farm goods.
They have also prepared a "Hanoi Action Plan" to implement a free trade
and investment pact among APEC members that was first articulated at the
Bogor, Indonesia, meeting in 1994.
However, the vision of a vast free trade area along the Pacific rim has
lost considerable momentum to a plethora of mini-deals -- at least 50
FTAs have been agreed or are under discussion among countries represented
at APEC, experts say.
PROLIFERATION OF MINI-PACTS
Business leaders, who annually prepare recommendations for the APEC
summit, urged speedier progress towards the Asia-Pacific free trade area
to counter the proliferation of mini-pacts that are adding costs and
complexity to doing business in the region.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) also urged leaders of the 21
Pacific rim economies meeting in Hanoi to take stronger steps to curb
trade in pirated goods and develop better plans to deal with pandemics
such as bird flu.
APEC says its members account for nearly half of global trade, 40 percent
of the world's population and 56 percent of the world's gross domestic
product.
While it remains too early to say what will come out of this week's
talks, the United States wants a strong APEC statement to "help
reinvigorate the Doha round", Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia
told Reuters in Washington.
Some trade experts believe APEC leaders could give a much-needed jolt to
the nearly dead Doha round of world trade talks by promoting a regional
free trade zone.
US, Japanese and South Korean envoys to talks aimed at getting North
Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme were due to meet on the
sidelines of the APEC meeting on Wednesday to discuss an early December
resumption of the stalled negotiations.
"I think we will try to use the next few weeks to be very busy and maybe
begin the talks sometime in early December, probably," US envoy
Christopher Hill said in Hanoi.
North Korea, which conducted a nuclear test last month, has boycotted the
talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China
since last year.
APEC ministers will also consider adopting a raft of counter-terrorism
measures, including ways to upgrade airport and seaport security, secure
food against deliberate contamination, and sharing information about
avian flu and other pandemics.
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