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Economist pushes for free-trade zone

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region should seek to set up a free-trade zone by the year 2007, a locally known economist said yesterday.

Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), president of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, made the call at a seminar held by the 2nd Democratic Pacific Assembly, which opened a day earlier in Taipei.

Scholars have suggested that countries in the Asia-Pacific region hold talks and sign an agreement to push for the formation of a free-trade zone by 2007 to help settle trade disputes among regional countries, Wu said.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, with its lax mechanisms and lengthy procedures, has had trouble handling such disputes, he said.

At a time when North America and Europe have set up their own free-trade zones, Asia-Pacific nations should also establish such a zone to cope with the shortcomings that APEC has had, he said.

Mac Harb, a parliamentarian from Canada, echoed Wu's comments, saying that it is advantageous for regional economies to set up a free-trade zone. He said that countries in the region, with 31 percent of the world's population, generate more than 23 percent of global foreign trade. Almost every country in the Asia Pacific possesses large foreign exchange reserves, he said.

Harb said unhealthy financial systems, a quickly emerging China, and the US' expanding trade deficit threaten regional growth.
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