APEC support for WTO talks is critical, NZ chair says

Asian Economic News, June 7, 1999

TOKYO, June 3 Kyodo

Support for new global trade talks from nations in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is critical, the chairman of the forum's senior officials meeting (SOM) said Thursday.

"We want to work very closely to ensure that APEC economies, which represent half of the world trade, can get to a position where they will be supportive of the launch of a new round of WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiations," Maarten Wevers, former New Zealand ambassador to Japan, said in an interview with Kyodo News.

New Zealand is the APEC chair this year. Wevers presides over the so-called SOM meetings, a preparatory step for an APEC leaders' meeting to be held in mid-September in Auckland.

"We have already mandated negotiations on agriculture and services," said Wevers, referring to the areas which are to be negotiated during the new round next year under the WTO. "But there is growing support within APEC for industrial tariffs to be negotiated."

A trade ministers' meeting in Tokyo in mid-May, among the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada and Japan, supported a broad-based agenda, including industrial tariffs and investment, for the next global round. Yet many WTO members which are developing countries are still cautious about having the scope of the talks widened.

"We don't know how far we can go" at the APEC trade ministers' meeting later this month, Wevers said. "I am not sure we can get it fully on what the structure of the round should be, which issues should be in."

"An important thing that APEC can do...is give a political signal on the basis of developing economies and developed economies," the SOM chairman insisted.

Wevers also stressed the urgency of Japan's economic recovery, which he said should be achieved through structural reform of the country's financial sector.

"A strong Japanese economy is critical. A strong regional economy is critical also for Japan," he said. "If Japan's financial market is strong, the rest of the economy is strong."

As APEC chair this year, New Zealand is hoping that forum members adopt pro-deregulation principles aimed at strengthening financial markets and boosting investment flows.

Wevers is in Tokyo to hold regular consultations with senior Japanese government officials.