APEC ministers responsible for trade (MRT) strongly reaffirmed on Friday their economies' commitment to successful conclusion of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha negotiations by the end of 2006 as targeted.

Trade ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) committed themselves to "summon the necessary political will to conclude the negotiations with an ambitious and balanced outcome across the board," according to the MRT stand- alone statement on the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations made at the two-day meeting of MRT concluding on Friday in southern Ho Chi Minh City.

The DDA round offers so much potential benefit for global trade, economic growth and development by delivering concrete results that expand trade flows, the ministers said, noting that a strong market access result, among others, is a prerequisite for successful conclusion of the round.

"Urgent action is needed to drive the process of reaching agreement on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) modalities by the end of June. At the end of July we need to see the overall shape of the package and have draft texts to work for a final result at the end of this year," the trade ministers stressed.

In NAMA, the APEC agreed last year to pursue a simple Swiss formula used to calculate tariffs in order to produce a narrow range of final tariff rates from a wide set of initial tariffs, and a maximum final tariff rate, no matter how high the original tariff was.

"We support the formula with two ambitious coefficients applying to developed and developing members delivering real and meaningful market access improvements.. On export competition we have agreed to the parallel elimination of all forms of export subsidies by 2013 with serious front loading," says the MRT statement.

They are ready to contribute to the milestone by supporting strong formulas that deliver meaningful new opportunities for our economies to prosper and develop, the ministers stressed, adding " APEC economies account for close to 50 percent of world trade, we cannot afford to lose this opportunity for global growth."

At the ministerial meeting, Director General of the WTO Pascal Lamy made a speech on encouraging APEC member economies to show stronger determination on speeding up and then finishing the Doha talks. WTO members kicked off the negotiations in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, aiming to slash subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce.

The DDA promotes greater market access and the strengthening of trade rules with particular emphasis to the needs of developing countries. It sets up a mandate to initiate or continue negotiations in the areas including agriculture; services; market access for non-agricultural goods; system for registration and notification of geographical indications; rules on sub-regional arrangements; antidumping and subsidies; and the relationship between WTO and multilateral environmental agreements.

During the two-day meeting, APEC trade ministers also touched upon other major issues like development trends of regional trade arrangements (RTA) and free trade agreements (FTA) in the Asia- Pacific region and their impacts on trade liberalization in the region.

They also discussed the development of model measures, a guide to the core provisions which might be included in a RTA or FTA, on the arrangements and agreements by 2008 deadline, the establishment of an action plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards the Bogor goals, adopted by APEC leaders in 1994 in Bogor, Indonesia, on free and open trade and investment in the Asia- Pacific region by 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing ones.

The ministers considered basic elements of the Hanoi action plan including supporting the multilateral action plan, strengthening collective and individual actions, promoting high- quality RTA and FTA, and facilitating the Busan Business Agenda.

Regarding RTA and FTA, APEC delegates to related meetings held before the ministerial meeting stated that the multilateral trade liberalization system remains the first priority with RTA and FTA being complementary mechanisms to achieve free trade, and that the new environmental resulting from trade liberalization should be as predictable and transparent as possible, to facilitate business transactions and investment decision.

Source: Xinhua