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APEC
trade ministers meet in Australia |
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News |
June 7, 2000
DARWIN, Australia, JUNE 6 (AP) - Cabinet ministers from the 21 Asia-Pacific countries met here Tuesday to discuss ways of promoting free trade across the region, but they were not expected to reach any major agreements. In fact, the trade ministers were likely to spend the bulk of their meetings calling for a new round of World Trade Organization talks to reduce trade barriers such as tariffs. Violent protests in Seattle, Washington, in November prevented the WTO from scheduling its next round of talks to advance free trade across global markets. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Richard Fisher said on Monday that reaffirming APEC's commitment to a new round of WTO talks is important because so much has changed since Seattle. "Given that the circumstances have changed, there is a need to project that kind of confidence," he said. "We have had robust economic growth. We should be getting ourselves in the starting blocks and indicating we want to go forward." WTO Director General Mike Moore traveled to Darwin, Australia's northernmost city, to give APEC members an update of prospects for WTO talks. APEC members already have a goal of free-and-fair trade by 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing countries. Delegates at the APEC meeting also will discuss a proposal by Japan for a comprehensive program providing developing countries with the legal expertise they need to implement existing trade agreements. The program also would promote multilateral trade through education.
A
number of APEC countries, including the United States, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada, say they agree in principle with the Japanese
proposal, but a final agreement isn't assured. The
ministers also may discuss bilateral free-trade agreements and
ones involving several APEC members. Since the WTO failure in Seattle,
many APEC countries have said they plan to discuss free-trade agreements with several of their trading partners.
The APEC ministers also were expected during their meetings in Darwin to discuss proposals to promote electronic commerce in the Asia-Pacific region. APEC's 21 members are 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. |