Asia-Pacific Rim ministers pledged on Wednesday to take concerted measures to facilitate free trade and combat avian influenza, terrorism and corruption.

After wrapping up a two-day ministerial meeting, the ministers endorsed a joint statement, saying the 6th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong next month would be a "critical step" in achieving the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations by the end of 2006 with an ambitious and overall balanced outcome.

The ministerial meeting was held prior to the Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea's southeastern port city of Busan slated on Friday.

APEC MINISTERS COMMITTED TO STRENGTHENING MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

"Significant progress" must be made at Hong Kong conference in resolving considerable divergence, and a clear roadmap for completing the Doha Round in 2006 must be established,"said the joint statement which will be submitted to the APEC economic leaders.

The ministers recommended that their leaders adopt a stand- alone statement on the DDA negotiations that "provided strong political leadership and commitment necessary to produce a sound platform for successfully concluding the negotiations in Hong Kong ".

The APEC ministers "reaffirmed their deep commitment to the multilateral trading system and their support for the WTO" and agreed that "APEC economies would continue to make contributions towards the successful outcome of the WTO DDA negotiations".

Attempt to unlock the tangle in the WTO negotiations would dominate the APEC summit amid mounting gloom over the outcome of the trade talks.

The statement urged all other WTO members to show flexibility needed to move forward the negotiations by and beyond the Hong Kong talks.

APEC COMMITTED TO ACHIEVING BOGOR GOALS

The APEC ministers also reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010 for developed members and 2020 for developing members as stipulated in the Bogor Declaration.

The ministers expressed the need of APEC to adapt its focus accordingly and to continue to deliver concrete and business relevant outcomes in the years ahead to realize the Bogor Goals.

The Bogor Goals, named after the city in Indonesia where they were declared in 1994, specify APEC objectives for eliminating developed members' trade and investment barriers by 2010, and those of developing members by 2020.

Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's minister of foreign affairs and trade who chaired this year's APEC Ministerial Meeting, said considerable progress has been made toward APEC's central Bogor Goals.

"The results of the mid-term stocktaking of progress toward the Bogor Goals show that APEC has made great strides in liberalizing trade and investment during the past 16 years," he told a press conference after concluding the ministerial meeting.

"The ministers agreed that, while the APEC agenda should be revitalized to keep pace with the new international trade environment, APEC must ensure that the achievement of the Bogor Goals," said the joint statement issued following the APEC Ministerial Meeting.

In order to accelerate progress toward the Bogor Goals, the ministers also emphasized the Busan Roadmap to the Bogor Goals, which outlines key priorities and frameworks, such as support for the multilateral trading system, strengthening collective and individual actions, promotions of high-quality regional trade agreements and free trade agreements (RTAs/FTAs), the Busan Business Agenda, said the joint statement.

The ministers also reaffirmed their deep commitment to the multilateral trading system and their support for the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"APEC economies would continue to make contribution toward the successful outcome of the WTO DDA negotiations and that the APEC Geneva Caucus must redouble its collective efforts to advance the negotiations in all areas of the Doha Development Agenda," the ministers said.

The APEC ministers agreed that high-quality Regional Trade Agreements/Free Trade Agreements maximized the contribution of those agreements to APEC-wide progress toward the Bogor Goals.

Ministers agreed that APEC would develop by 2008 comprehensive model measures as many commonly accepted RTA/FTA chapters as possible for trade facilitation, said the joint statement.

APEC MINISTERS URGE TO EFFECTIVELY RESPOND TO BIRD FLU

In the joint statement, the ministers vowed to accelerate APEC's ongoing work on infectious disease threats such as avian influenza.

The ministers expressed the concern the threat that the highly pathogenic avian influenza posed to the Asia-Pacific region as well as to the world, said the statement.

"They agreed it was critical to ensure that APEC was prepared for and had the capacity to effectively respond to infectious diseases at the individual, regional and international levels," said the statement.

They approved Vietnam's proposal to host an APEC ministerial meeting on avian influenza in 2006 and called for active participation in the APEC symposium on containing contagious diseases to be held in China in April 2006.

The ministers also called on cooperating with specialized international organizations, such as the WTO, the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health, to prevent spread of the bird flu.

Moreover, ministers called for support to strengthen their regional and international surveillance and responses systems, according to the statement.

"Ministers endorsed the initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating and Influenza Pandemic, with the aim of strengthened collective action and individual commitment on a multi-sectoral basis to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic," the statement said.

They also agreed on the recommendations of the cross-sectoral APEC Symposium on Response to Outbreak of Avian Influenza and Preparedness for a Human Health Emergency held in San Francisco in this July, which sought to minimize the threats to animal and human health, including the threat of transmission from animal to human, as well as the economic consequences of avian and other pandemic influenza.

The ministers also instructed all APEC fora to continue to work cooperatively with APEC's Health Task Force and Task force on Emergency Preparedness to achieve this goal.

They also stressed the importance of timely and accurate reporting and capacity building efforts to enable adequate, systematic and well-coordinated prevention.

APEC MINISTERS PLEDGE ANTI-TERROR COOPERATION

In the joint statement, APEC ministers said that terrorism is a serious threat to the security, stability and the growth of the APEC region.

The ministers encouraged APEC economies to continue to develop new initiatives to dismantle transnational terrorist groups, to eliminate the danger posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.

In this connection, the APEC ministers welcome Singapore's initiative to host a symposium on Total Supply Chain Security in 2006.

The ministers also recognized the need to further facilitate secure trade, to reduce public health hazards and to reduce the threat of economic disruption through incidents related to radioactive materials.

Ministers agreed to instruct officials to advance the APEC initiative on capacity building for machine readable travel documents and biometrics technology to enhance regional security.

They also called for further cooperation to ensure that all APEC members issue machine-readable travel documents, if possible, with biometric information by the end of 2008.

The ministers also reiterated their common understanding that APEC needed to continue building capacities and stressed the appropriate capacity building activities and best practices should be identified and made available to developing economies for the implementation of security measures.

APEC SETS BURAN ROADMAP TO BOGOR GOALS

Kim Hyun Chong, Korea's minister for trade and co-chair of the APEC Ministerial Meeting, said, as the year 2005 marks the midpoint between the creation of APEC in 1989 and its ultimate goals in 2020, member economies have seen the need to take stock and plan for the future.

"The region has achieved a great deal during the past one and a half decades of APEC and now we have the roadmap to see our regional goals achieved," Kim said.

APEC members have agreed to a number of initiatives to deepen commitment to the multilateral trading system and the WTO while also developing high quality free trade agreements, Kim said.

"Member economies are committed to the launch of the Busan Business Agenda that has been developed to respond to concerns of the private sector such as business facilitation, transparency and behind-the-border regulations," he said.

The WTO Doha Round trade talks, first introduced at the fourth WTO biannual ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in 2001, have been stalled due to deep differences between the developed and developing members on market access, agriculture subsidies and tariff structures. The push by APEC leaders to keep the momentum going is seen as important because the region represents nearly half of the world trade.

The Pacific Rim ministers also declared their support for Russia and Vietnam to join the WTO and welcomed the progress that have been made in their accession negotiations.

To help enhance security of oil supply, the ministers agreed to support the establishment of the APEC Gas Forum, instructing the APEC Energy Working Group to work closely with business, financial and research communities.

APEC ministers pledged to intensify regional cooperation to deny safe haven individuals found guilty of corruption and encourage greater cooperation in the areas of mutual legal assistance in the fields of extradition and asset recovery. They also called member economies to complete the exchange of information on their Web sites to better protect intellectual property rights.

The joint statement will be submitted to the two-day APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting set to start on Friday for final endorsement. The main theme of this year's APEC forum is: "Toward One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change."

Since its inception in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence among Asia-Pacific economies, APEC has become a formidable regional forum acting as the primary regional vehicle for promoting open trade and practical economic and technical cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

APEC account for more than one-third of the world's population (2.6 billion people), about 60 percent of world GDP and nearly half of world trade. It represents the most economically dynamic region in the world, having generated nearly 70 percent of global economic growth in its first 10 years.

APEC currently has 21 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. The chairmanship rotates among its members, with South Korea holding the chair this year.

Source: Xinhua