CORRECTED 2ND LD: APEC puts off discussions on tariffs to…

Asian Economic News, June 11, 2001

SHANGHAI, June 6 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH END OF MORNING SESSION)

Trade ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum endorsed Wednesday a number of specific ideas to reinforce their commitment to free and open trade and investment, but put off the key tariffs issue until October, APEC officials said.

In their inaugural two-hour session Wednesday in Shanghai, the ministers approved a report by senior officials to continue discussions until October on whether to further APEC's tariffs reduction target, the officials said.

The ministers, meanwhile, are to compare notes on how to push for the launch in November in Qatar of a new trade round under the World Trade Organization (WTO) in an afternoon retreat at the old town of Zhouzhuang, about an hour from Shanghai.

WTO Director General Mike Moore is to deliver a speech there, the officials said.

In their joint statement due out Thursday, the APEC ministers will likely urge the agenda of the new trade talks to be broad-based, Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said just before the meeting's opening.

Although some countries are still reluctant to cover a broad range of issues in the agenda, Japan's commitment to help them build the capacity to implement past WTO agreements would let APEC reach an accord at least in October when their leaders meet, also in Shanghai, Hiranuma said.

Aside from the new WTO trade talks, how to beef up their own commitment to free and open trade and investment is a key item for discussions in this year's APEC forum, along with economic and technical cooperation and the information technology-driven new economy.

However, senior officials had failed to reach an accord in their weekend preparatory talks on a proposal that APEC aim to eliminate tariffs under goals set in 1994 in Bogor, Indonesia, that developed members liberalize trade and investment by 2010 and developing ones by 2020, the officials said.

Currently, the 1995 Osaka Action Agenda (OAA) which provides a road map to the Bogor goals stipulates that APEC economies will achieve free and open trade by ''progressively reducing tariffs.'' Updating the OAA is the key element of the ongoing APEC effort to refresh its liberalization drive.

Hiranuma was quoted as telling the morning session, ''I expect discussions on the remaining issues will progress by October,'' when meetings of foreign and trade ministers and their leaders will be held, also in Shanghai.

Apparently to more aggressively reinvigorate the OAA, the United States has proposed the so-called ''Shanghai Charter,'' including a review of the OAA, to be adopted at the leaders' summit in October.

The two-day discussions of trade ministers will effectively set the agenda for the APEC leaders summit in October.

Japanese officials said they think the U.S. proposal is aimed at adding new themes such as biotechnology and e-commerce to the agenda now covering 15 areas. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told reporters on the eve of the meeting he wants these two plus trade in chemicals and automobiles to be discussed by the regional forum.

China, meanwhile, is hoping the range of APEC meetings it hosts this year will help accelerate its bid to join the WTO.

At this meeting's outset, Chinese Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Minister Shi Guangsheng, the chairman, read a message from President Jiang Zemin that the gathering is important for the region's stable and open economic and trade environment and a new world economic order.

Zoellick and Shi failed to iron out some remaining differences on the final terms of China's WTO accession when they met Tuesday, but the two parties are expected to have more discussions during the course of the week.

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