Foreign and trade ministers and representatives from the Asia-Pacific region met Wednesday here to discuss a host of issues including trade and investment, clean development and climate change. The meeting is expected to lend momentum to creating a worldwide framework in dealing with climate change and pushing the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.
A top official of the APEC Secretariat told Xinhua in a recent interview that the outcome of the regional forum is expected to make a splash in both the climate change and the Doha talks, as leaders of the world's biggest producers and energy consumers can be a "pretty strong and influential group".
CLIMATE CHANGE
Australia, the host economy of this year's meeting, has made it clear that it eyes some breakthrough in the climate issue, although John Howard, the Aussie prime minister, said he didn't expect binding greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Colin Heseltine, Executive Director of APEC Secretariat, said Howard's vision is "recognition of the fact that APEC doesn't make binding decisions." He said the forum builds consensus, which can then support work in other fora, such as a major United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December. Ban Ki- moon, the UN secretary-general, is concerned that the December conference "may not be able to deliver the kind of results that were necessary without some kind of political intervention," according to Richard Kinley, deputy executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"Climate change negotiations have been going on for some time now in the UN framework," Kinley said, adding "there is a general sense in the community that they have not been moving as quickly."
With its member economies burning 60 percent of the world's energy needs, the APEC is a "pretty strong and influential group when it comes to climate change," said Heseltine. Positive agreement of the forum "will then support negotiations" in the Bali conference.
However, Heseltine warned against "one size fits all" approach to tackle climate change, saying big growing economies such as China, India got "real developmental needs", and solutions to climate change which would impede their economic growth "wouldn't be reasonable."
He said from what he understands, Howard's message of non- binding agreement means "you have to come up with a framework to tackle climate change, which recognizes different circumstances in different economies... there could be a range of different responses individual economies could make, but they all form part of the global framework."
DOHA ROUND
Formed initially to push free trade and development, the APEC forum also takes on the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.
At the opening session of APEC Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday morning, Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss, who co-chairs the meeting, said representatives would cover supporting the multilateral trading system and WTO Doha Round. The meeting "has potential to make very significant contribution to the current discussions of relations and trade issues of the world."
Heseltine also thinks Doha matters. Calling trade liberalization one of APEC's main pillars, he said Doha is the " immediate goal" of APEC, since "the best form of trade agreement is one that includes every one", and that means the World Trade Organization.
Stuck on the issue of agricultural subsidies and access for imported goods, the Doha Round has long been considered moribund. Trade officials from all over the world resumed Doha round talks in Geneva this week, aiming to breathe new life into it. A survey of 400 Asia-Pacific government officials, analysts and business leaders found that Doha should top the agenda at APEC meeting this week.
UNDER THE RADAR
Incepted in 1989 in Australian capital Canberra, APEC came back in Australia after 18 years. The forum's non-binding nature has been criticized, as all talk, no action. However, Heseltine dismissed the notion, saying the forum has created a "better environment and climate in which trade and investment would open up," and it has "set the agenda for the region's conversation."
APEC now accounts for approximately 40 percent of the world's population, 56 percent of world GDP and 48 percent of world trade. Heseltine said APEC's consensus building has supported other fora such as WTO, citing the Uruguay round of talks in 1993, which led to the establishment of WTO, and the Information Technology Agreement, adopted in 1997. APEC played constructive roles in both negotiations.
when it comes to issues such as climate change and structural reform, which involve sensitive domestic issues in member economies, it's hard to get an agreement in a "confrontational negotiating forum," whereas APEC's approach of building consensus can go a long way, Heseltine said.
He said APEC has done some "solid, useful work" to help member economies, but it's not the sort of the thing people are going to categorize as great breakthroughs or put on the front-pages of newspapers. "It's not the way it works."
Source: Xinhua
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