Associated Press Worldstream | By DIRK BEVERIDGE | October 14, 2003
Pacific Rim nations must push harder for a new global trade deal, officials said Tuesday as they opened their annual meeting by pondering ways to restart WTO negotiations that recently collapsed in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The failure in Cancun makes it "even more important" for APEC members to urge the World Trade Organization forward on a round of talks intended to lift the fortunes of nations rich and poor, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after senior officials from the 21 member economies met here all day.
The officials focused on economic issues including multilateral trading systems on Tuesday and planned to discuss counter-terrorism on Wednesday, a U.S. delegate said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
While this year's tightly-guarded gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is expected to tackle dramatic global issues like the Iraq crisis, the war on terror and nuclear fears on the Korean peninsula, trade liberalization remains the core issue for APEC.
The start of the APEC meeting, which concludes next week with a leaders' summit, was accompanied early Tuesday by local political squabbling as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed that the WTO chief - a Thai who comes from an opposition party - had not been invited.
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi was conspicuously missing from the official guest list at the meeting on his home turf and Thai newspapers speculated the reason might be Supachai's political differences with Thaksin. They are from opposing parties and Supachai served as commerce minister in a previous government.
Thaksin confirmed that Supachai had not been invited and told reporters they had not even met since Supachai took charge of the WTO.
"I requested to meet him but there was no reply - I don't know why," Thaksin said.
Thaksin said the APEC leaders, including U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, would "give priority" to restarting the WTO talks "because the world is watching what APEC can do after the Cancun failure."
The omission of Supachai "has raised speculation among APEC members about whether Thai politics has taken precedence over this high-level meeting, or the government has little appetite for building a global economic multilateral system. Or both," a leading Thai newspaper, The Nation, said in a front-page story.
Supachai, who is currently in Geneva where the WTO is headquartered, was not available for comment.
APEC's stated goal is for free trade and investment among developed members by 2010, and among developing economies by 2020. The grouping has typically voiced support for WTO moves to reduce barriers to global commerce.
Hundreds of policemen secured the Queen Sirikit Convention Center where the meeting is taking place, with delegates, journalists and staff checked thoroughly before being let inside after passing through metal detectors.
Bush is urging others in APEC to boost the fight against terrorism, with the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis a likely focal point for the summit that ends Oct. 21.
China might come under renewed fire from Washington and others over its reluctance to let its currency, the yuan, appreciate and bring down its huge trade imbalance.
Beijing has indicated it will eventually become more flexible about the yuan's value, which has been pegged at about 8.28 to the U.S. dollar since 1994, but it has made no firm commitments.
With many nations in the region still working hard to bounce back from the SARS crisis, officials agreed Tuesday that APEC members must set up better coordination among their health care systemst to fight back against any repeat outbreaks or against other epidemics, Sihasak said. Details would be worked out later, he said.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome struck hardest in Asia, particularly in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. APEC members Canada and Vietnam also had fatal outbreaks.
APEC members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam.Associated Press Worldstream:
