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APEC business leaders urge vast free trade zone
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APEC business leaders urge vast free trade zone
Asia-Pacific business leaders called yesterday for an Asia-Pacific free trade area to counter the proliferation of mini-pacts that are adding costs and complexity to doing business in the region.
The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) also urged leaders of the 21 Pacific rim economies meeting in Hanoi to take stronger steps to curb trade in pirated goods and develop better plans to deal with pandemics such as bird flu.
At their annual meeting ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit this weekend, the business council noted that bilateral and regional trade pacts have blossomed in recent years.
At least 50 free trade pacts have been agreed or are under discussion among countries represented at APEC, experts say.
APEC says its 21 members account for nearly half of global trade, 40 percent of the world’s population and 56 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
Last year’s APEC meeting was in Pusan, South Korea and an Asia-Pacific free trade area was first mooted at the 1994 meeting in Bogor, Indonesia.
ABAC, comprising three senior business people from each APEC economy, also urged leaders to renew efforts at the summit to revive the Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July.
The business leaders said that while considerable progress had been made in intellectual property protection. The council saw a “critical need for more information about avian influenza”, to help the Asia-Pacific business community “prepare continuity plans for the possibility of a future health pandemic”.
Vietnam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet told the opening session of ABAC that Asia-Pacific economies had achieved above average growth rates despite an unstable oil market.
“That shows the liberalisation of trade and investment is a stimulation for promoting development and bringing in prosperity for the entire APEC region in general, and each economy in particular.”
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