Asian countries, including emerging trade giant China, will go to the WTO meeting next month prepared to back a realistic agenda, but will be wary of "extraneous matters" brought up by western countries, analysts and officials said.
There are already enough items to kick off a new round of global trade talks such as implementation issues, agriculture, services and industrial tariffs, said officials from the region, consisting largely of developing nations.
The fallout on the global economy of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US has made a new round more urgent, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok-tong said, urging countries to rise above the technical issues and gather the political will get the process going.
Despite efforts to narrow differences, battle lines remain drawn on the introduction of items considered as unrelated to trade like labor standards and protection of the environment.
These, along with differences on agriculture, competition policy and investment rules, could hijack the Nov. 9-to-13 meeting of 142 WTO ministers in the Qatari capital of Doha, officials said.
India and Malaysia have already indicated they will resist attempts by developed nations to inject unrelated issues into the agenda.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said it was possible some countries "will bring extraneous matters, things that are not related to trade but which will have a bad effect on poorer countries."
Malaysia will support a new round "if the agenda suits us," said Mahathir, a fierce critic of unfettered liberalization.
Outspoken Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said Kuala Lumpur would like to see a provision allowing countries to "opt out" of contentious issues.
"If the flexibility of an opt-out can be part of the process towards Doha, then I can see an agenda coming into shape," she said on the sidelines of the recent Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in Shanghai.
"Without that, I don't see any change no matter how eager they are to launch a new round because as long as one country disagrees, it cannot kick off," she said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS