4TH LD: APEC ministers seek WTO concessions, adopt bird flu measures

Asian Economic News, Nov 21, 2005

BUSAN, South Korea, Nov. 16 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING BACKGROUND AT 7TH-8TH GRAFS)

Foreign and trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Wednesday called on members of the World Trade Organization to make compromises to strike a deal and endorsed an initiative to fight a potential bird flu pandemic.

The Pacific Rim ministers issued a joint statement as they wrapped up their two-day annual meeting in this South Korean port city, which also covered counterterrorism measures, responses to high oil prices, ways to curb piracy and a midterm review of the APEC goals of achieving free and open trade and investment by 2020.

In the statement, the ministers called for a successful conclusion of the current Doha Round of WTO trade liberalization talks by the end of 2006 ''with an ambitious and overall balanced outcome.'' The round, which covers wide areas of trade in goods and services as well as rules, was launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital.

On bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia since December 2003, APEC economies endorsed the Initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic, which is aimed at strengthening collective action, and welcomed Vietnam's proposal to host an APEC ministerial meeting on the disease in 2006.

South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun Chong, co-chair of the APEC ministerial meeting, said at a press conference following the talks that ministers generally supported the view that developed economies should eliminate all types of export subsidies in the farm sector by 2010.

Key players in the WTO agricultural trade liberalization talks such as the United States, the European Union and the Group of 20 major developing countries including Brazil and India have presented their offers for cuts in tariffs and domestic support as well as export subsidies.

So far, the EU offer of slashing tariffs and support for farmers has been criticized by the United States and major developing countries as being too modest. As for export subsidies, the WTO members have agreed to eventually abolish them but players differ on the deadline.

Economies such as the United States, Australia, India and Brazil support removal of all export subsidies by 2010, but the EU has not set a time frame.

Kim expected ''a lot of bargaining'' will occur during the upcoming Dec. 13-18 WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.

In the paper, the ministers agreed that significant progress must be made in Hong Kong ''in resolving considerable divergences, and a clear road map for completing the round in 2006 must be established.''

The ministers urged their leaders to adopt a stand-alone statement on their contribution to the WTO negotiations during their two-day meeting from Friday, which will provide ''strong political leadership and commitment,'' and urged all other WTO members to ''show flexibilities needed to move forward the negotiations.''

''We will have a very bold leaders' declaration on this issue. This is not just lip service. We all understand that action is very important for achieving the success,'' Kim said.

The 21 Pacific Rim economies also adopted the APEC Model Guidelines to Reduce Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods to protect against unauthorized copies and to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods over the Internet.

They also agreed to further tighten counterterrorism measures, including ways to ensure secure trade by controlling the export-import of radioactive sources and assessing airport vulnerability to portable air defense systems.

On energy, ministers ''noted with concern'' that high oil prices might hurt APEC economies and called on members to ''increase oil production, enhance the security of oil supply, improve the efficient operation of the global oil market and promote energy diversification, efficiency and conservation.''

The APEC members also endorsed the midterm review report titled Busan Roadmap to the Bogor Goals. The paper called on the regional body to implement measures such as intellectual property rights protection and trade facilitation.

Under the goals adopted in Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994, developed countries aim to achieve freer trade by 2010 and industrializing economies by 2020.

APEC economies also set a new goal of cutting trade facilitation costs by 5 percent between 2007 and 2010 and adopted a model clause on trade facilitation that involves enhanced transparency and paperless trading for bilateral free trade agreements.

They also drafted structural reform programs to be implemented by each economy by 2010, with focus on such topics as deregulation and competition policies.

The ministers also approved Japan's bid to host APEC meetings in 2010. Japan last organized an APEC summit in 1995 in Osaka.

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