APEC plans $13.3 mil. WTO package for developing nations

Asian Economic News, Nov 13, 2000

BANDER SERI BEGAWAN, Nov. 10 Kyodo

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is expected to endorse a $13.3 million package to help developing economies in the region implement World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements at a ministerial meeting next week, APEC officials said Friday.

The package is designed to finance some 300 projects to help nine of the APEC's 21 members nurture experts to follow complicated WTO agreements and develop related infrastructures, the officials said.

The nine are China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Peru and Papua New Guinea, the officials said.

APEC's developed economies hope the package will lead to the early launch of a new round of WTO-sponsored multilateral trade liberalization negotiations by dispelling developing nations' fears that further trade liberalization would only benefit developed countries.

APEC foreign and trade ministers will formally approve the package at their meeting in the Brunei capital on Sunday and Monday after senior APEC officials put the finishing touches on it, they said.

The package, which would go into effect next year, would be financed by facilities within APEC and international lending agencies such as the World Bank, they said.

The package is based on a Japanese proposal put forward during an APEC trade ministerial meeting in June in Darwin, Australia.

Formed in 1989, APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.