Asia-Pacific free trade high on agenda as officials gather

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TOKYO, Feb. 21 Kyodo -
Senior officials from Pacific Rim economies will agree on the need to keep
making efforts to realize a free-trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region when
they meet in Hiroshima on Monday and Tuesday, a draft agenda showed Sunday.
The officials from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum aim to ''agree on how to explore possible pathways to an FTAAP building
on existing analytical studies,'' the draft agenda said in reference to the
potential region-wide free-trade zone, dubbed Free Trade Area in the Asia
Pacific, or FTAAP.
Japan assumes the rotating chairmanship of APEC, which involves China, Russia
and the United States, in 2010 and will host a series of meetings, including
ministerial talks and the summit in November.
The draft, which was obtained by Kyodo News, also says the officials will have
''broad policy discussions including on resisting protectionism and supporting
the multilateral trade system'' under the World Trade Organization.
The WTO aims to conclude the stalled Doha Round of global trade liberalization
talks within this year. The original deadline for the round, launched in 2001,
was 2005.
Experts say the 153-member WTO needs a breakthrough on such crucial topics as
tariff cuts and reduction in export subsidies by the summer, when APEC will
separately hold a trade ministers' meeting.
They say such a breakthrough can only come after concessions by key players,
including Brazil, India and the United States, but add it will not be easy.
Some APEC officials suggest, however, that a failure by the WTO to achieve a
breakthrough would not harm efforts for freer trade and investment. They argue
instead that it may strengthen the resolve of APEC members to achieve FTAAP as
a new framework to enhance trade among Asia-Pacific economies.
Prospects are not all bright, however. APEC, which accounts for half the
world's global economic output and some 40 percent of its population, is a huge
regional economy in which economic conditions vary from member to member.
Attempting to agree on a single opinion is so difficult that one of the
officials said FTAAP is completely different from a free-trade agreement,
describing it rather as a ''legally nonbinding'' free-trade zone.
China, an emerging power in the area, has been widely seen as cautious toward
the United States establishing a strong foothold in Asia, preferring to pursue
economic integration between Japan, China, South Korea and Southeast Asian
countries -- an idea that would exclude some other APEC members, such as
Australia, a U.S. ally in the Pacific area.
The Hiroshima meeting, which comes as the first formal event for Japan as APEC
chair, will also revolve around such issues as engineering ''Growth Strategy''
for APEC and ensuring human security that focuses on cooperation toward food
safety and disaster prevention.
Another crucial issue under Japan's chairmanship is assessing the extent to
which the advanced economies of APEC have achieved its Bogor Goals of trade and
investment liberalization, set 16 years ago.
The goals, named after the Indonesian city where APEC leaders reached their
agreement in 1994 and implemented under the Osaka Action Plan charted in 1995,
when Japan last chaired the forum, set liberalization targets for developed
nations by 2010 and for less-developed members by 2020.
APEC will review how trade and investment have been freed thanks to the
initiatives of the WTO and various bilateral or multilateral accords in the
region.
In Hiroshima, senior officials are expected to discuss the first draft of the
assessment report on the achievement of the Bogor Goals, note the progress made
so far and agree on the next step to be taken.
APEC trade ministers, who will meet in June in Hokkaido, are likely to agree on
the final draft of the assessment before the leaders approve the assessment at
their summit in November in Yokohama.
APEC 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.
==Kyodo