Pacific Rim foreign and trade ministers failed to pledge to start a new round of global trade talks by next year as they wrapped up their annual meeting in Brunei yesterday after disagreement over what the talks should cover.
Ministers from the 21 economies of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ended their two-day annual meeting yesterday after being locked in meetings intend to agree on wording calling for a fresh round of WTO talks after the collapse of the WTO meeting in Seattle last year.
Compromise
But the final product of the joint statement presented nothing more than a compromise. "Ministers reaffirmed their strong commitment to the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at the earliest opportunity," the statement proclaimed.
The statement went on to include views pushed by countries such as Malaysia arguing that delegations in Geneva, where the WTO is based, should agree on an agenda in 2001, one "that is balanced and sufficiently broad-based to respond to the interests and concerns of all WTO members."
The US, Australia and New Zealand had wanted APEC to target 2001 as the date for the new talks to begin, while Malaysia and some other countries denounced such a standpoint, arguing that an agenda for the new round should be agreed upon first.
"APEC is ruled by consensus, so the final product was rather lenient, which covered opinions for those who wanted a quick start of the new rounds, and those who favored an agreed agenda first," said Lin Hsin-yi (
Substantial progress
The statement welcomed the "substantial progress" in the WTO accession negotiations with China, and urged the rapid completion of the related negotiations leading up to China's accession. It also reiterated APEC's support for Taiwan's "rapid accession" to the world trading body.
But what took the limelight during the joint ministerial press conference was the opposing views on APEC's future presented by the US and Malaysia ministers when a reporter asked if the 11-year-old regional grouping has become "irrelevant."
The US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said APEC remains important in terms of its "cutting-edge" role in pushing for free trade initiatives, but Malaysia's delegate immediately took the floor to express a different view.
Dato Seri Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia's minister of international trade and industry, said APEC could only become irrelevant "if APEC focuses on one aspect, that is, market opening."
She stressed that the grouping could only become relevant to the region when it encompassed "areas that matter a lot" to society, such as e-commerce and economic cooperation, among others.
New economy
Meanwhile, when being asked by the Taipei Times if the issue of the new economy would be included in next year's APEC agenda and its view on Taiwan's new-economy proposal, which was endorsed by the ministerial meeting yesterday, China's delegate remained wishy-washy.
Shi Guangsheng (石廣生), China's Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, only answered the first part of the question while ignoring the latter one.
"All of APEC's initiatives and agendas are on a voluntary basis and are based on the spirit of equal negotiations. As for the agendas for next year, China is still consulting with APEC members," Shi said.
Taipei's proposal, entitled "Transforming a digital divide into a digital opportunity," aims to close the technology gap between poor and rich countries.
The two-year project, composed of seminars and tailor-made programs for countries intersted in attending, is scheduled to begin next year.
Lin also called for all interested APEC members to take part in the proposal.
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