Doha Round may miss goal without 'maximum flexibility': APEC draft

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SINGAPORE, Nov. 11 Kyodo -
The stalled Doha Round of multilateral free-trade talks under the World Trade
Organization may again miss its target deadline unless member economies
exercise ''maximum flexibility'' in building a clear idea of a final package, a
draft of the joint statement by ministers of the Asia-Pacific area showed
Wednesday.
The foreign and trade ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum, which involves such big economies as China, Japan and the
United States, began their two-day meeting in Singapore to discuss issues
ranging from economic growth after the recent crisis to how to promote economic
integration in the region.
Concerns about the eight-year-old Doha talks are also high on the agenda.
Though many WTO members, including European nations, are not within APEC, the
Pacific Rim group accounts for 44 percent of the value of global trade.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy is joining the meeting in Singapore to urge
further political commitment to successfully concluding the Doha talks,
launched in 2001 and originally scheduled to be concluded in 2005.
The ministers' draft statement obtained by Kyodo News warns the negotiations
have recently moved so slowly that the WTO may again miss its target deadline
for concluding the talks, now set in 2010.
''We urge greater substantive engagement at all levels utilizing all possible
avenues, including text-based negotiations...and direct engagement between
members to evaluate and close the remaining gap,'' according to the draft
statement obtained by Kyodo News.
The Doha Round was initiated in the Qatari capital with the aim of helping
growth in poor countries by enhancing trade. The stagnation is due mainly to
differences between developed and developing members over how much to cut farm
subsidies and industrial and agricultural tariffs.
The ministers will adopt a joint statement Thursday, and their talks will be
reflected during the APEC leaders' summit Saturday and Sunday. Farm and trade
ministers from WTO members, meanwhile, are scheduled to gather between Nov. 30
and Dec. 2 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Among other issues the APEC ministers are to discuss is their battle against
protectionism in international trade, which has been on the rise since the
global economic downturn began. They will confirm their earlier pledge to
reject any measures to excessively protect domestic industries, such as raising
fresh trade barriers.
Seeking to establish free and open trade and investment is the main pillar of
APEC's principle. The ministers will discuss a proposed Free Trade Area of the
Asia Pacific.
As for the region's economic growth strategy after the crisis, host Singapore
sets as one of the main issues how to enable ''inclusive'' growth. It says the
focus must be shifted to ensure both developed and developing members and all
segments of society, including poor or socially weak people, benefit from
economic integration in the Pacific Rim area.
Experts say that APEC, formed in 1989 as a nonbinding gathering to pursue
globalization and free trade, now realizes it is necessary to address the
adverse effects of such zeal and turn its attention to problems facing those
left behind.
From Japan, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Economy, Trade and Industry
Minister Masayuki Naoshima attended the ministerial meeting and Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama will join the summit.
Japan, which will host next year's series of APEC meetings, is expected to say
it will take the lead in identifying the problems that APEC should address as a
priority under the goal set by Singapore, including assistance to smaller
companies, improving social-safety nets and offering job training for the poor.
Tokyo is also likely to pledge a leading role in discussing how APEC can create
a comprehensive long-term growth strategy heading toward the 2010 summit in the
Japanese city of Yokohama.
APEC, which accounts for 53 percent of the world's gross domestic product and
40 percent of its population, 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