WORLD / Asia-Pacific
APEC ministers start talks on trade
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-11-15 14:42
Hanoi - Cabinet ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum began talks on Wednesday seeking ways to revive comatose global
trade talks and get their own Pacific rim free trade area off the drawing
board.
An armed policeman stands guard outside the venue of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Hanoi November 15, 2006. Cabinet
ministers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum began talks on
Wednesday seeking ways to revive comatose global trade talks and get
their own Pacific rim free trade area off the drawing board. [Reuters]
APEC foreign and trade ministers convened at Hanoi's spanking new,
German-designed $270 million National Convention Centre in a modern Hanoi
suburb for Vietnam's international coming-out party.
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But the annual extravaganza that will culminate in Sunday's Leaders'
Summit began on a sour note after the US Congress failed to pass
legislation normalising trade ties with Vietnam, America's old Cold War
foe.
House Republican leaders had hoped to give US President George W. Bush a
strong send-off to Hanoi by approving the bill, but it failed again on
Tuesday, after being turned down the day before.
APEC senior officials prepared an agenda that calls for the resumption of
the Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July amid
clashes over subsidies and tariffs for farm goods.
"Many have said the APEC meeting in Vietnam is seen as a last resort to
the resumption of the Doha round," Vietnam's Deputy Foreign Minister Le
Cong Phung told reporters.
With the global trade round deadlocked, APEC leaders will discuss a free
trade agreement among their 21 economies, which account for nearly half
of world trade and generate 70 percent of global economic growth.
However, the vision of a vast free trade area along the Pacific rim has
lost considerable momentum to a plethora of mini-deals -- at least 50
FTAs have been agreed or are under discussion among countries represented
at APEC, experts say.
First Foreign Trip
An APEC free trade zone is worth studying, but is a poor alternative to
the Doha round, said Charles Morrison, chairman of the business
think-tank, Pacific Economic Cooperation Council.
"There is no plan B as good as plan A and that is global free trade," he
told a news conference in Hanoi on Wednesday.
Bush left late on Tuesday on a week-long visit to Asia, his first foreign
trip since his party suffered a thumping defeat in congressional
elections last week.
He will make a refuelling stop in Moscow, where he will hold a brief
airport meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, before heading to
Singapore and then to Hanoi for the summit.
Bush and Putin were expected to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis,
among other issues.
US, Japanese and South Korean envoys to talks aimed at getting North
Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme were due to meet on the
sidelines of the APEC meeting on Wednesday to discuss an early December
resumption of the stalled negotiations.
"I think we will try to use the next few weeks to be very busy and maybe
begin the talks sometime in early December, probably," US envoy
Christopher Hill said in Hanoi.
North Korea, which conducted a defiant nuclear test last month, has
boycotted the talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, Japan,
Russia, China since last year.
APEC ministers will also consider adopting a raft of counter-terrorism
measures, including ways to upgrade airport and seaport security, secure
food against deliberate contamination, and sharing information about
avian flu and other pandemics.
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