He said agreeing to study the feasibility of an FTAAP could also act as a "credible political jolt" to non-APEC states, the EU, India and Brazil, forcing them to make new offers that would jumpstart the Doha round.
Bergsten said the proliferation of free trade pacts in East Asia -- which could evolve into a wider East Asia free trade zone -- threatened to "draw a line down the middle of the Pacific" amid similar trade groupings involving the US and Latin America.
This would "raise severe political and even security as well as economic problems for many countries in the region," he said.
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