APEC ’too busy’ for free trade deal, says Canberra
The Australian
APEC ’too busy’ for free trade deal, says Canberra
David Uren, Economics correspondent
January 12, 2007
AUSTRALIA has dismissed plans for an APEC free trade agreement, arguing that member countries are too busy cementing other trade deals to give it serious attention.
As 800 senior officials from the 21 APEC member nations prepare to gather in Canberra next week, Australia’s APEC ambassador, David Spencer, said Australia would not be using its chairmanship of the organisation this year to support a US push for a free trade deal.
"The attitude among many of the members of APEC is, ’Gee whiz, we’re already up to our ears in bilateral free trade agreements’," he said.
"The idea of a monster FTA is something that we might think about down the track, but it’s a long way from being feasible at the moment."
An APEC free trade deal has been promoted by the US as a fallback in case the Doha negotiations for a new world trade agreement fail.
But Mr Spencer said that until recently the US Government was not "overwhelmingly committed" to the idea.
He said there were three rival plans for regional free trade agreements.
Mr Spencer said the Chinese priority was a deal with the Southeast Asian nations included in ASEAN, along with Korea and Japan.
However, Japan was pressing for a deal that would include all 16 members of the East Asian Summit, which would also include Australia, New Zealand and India.
The APEC free trade agreement would be the only one that included the US.
"I think it is very unclear how these sub-regional free trade agreements are going to evolve," Mr Spencer said.
However, he said the idea of an APEC free trade deal was useful in setting up a vision for the organisation.
He conceded it was possible that efforts under way to resuscitate the world trade talks might not be successful.
"The success or failure of the WTO will have a very important bearing on how quickly and how ambitiously we and the region take up these ideas for further development of regional free trade agreements," he said.
Next week’s meeting, which is the first of a series leading up to the summit of world leaders in Sydney in September, will canvass expanding the membership of APEC to include India.
Membership has been frozen for 10 years, but there are a dozen nations that have expressed interest in joining the group, including India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Burma, Colombia and Panama.
"The genuine attitude has been that we’re not a closed shop but we’re conscious of the need for effectiveness and managing a diverse group," Mr Spencer said.
