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Highlights of Chair's Statement on APEC MRT Meeting
The following are the highlights of the Chair's Statement on the Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT), which closed Thursday :
The two-day meeting reviewed recent trends in economic development in the Asia-Pacific Region. In pursuing the APEC goal of free and open trade and investment, the meeting also looked into critical multilateral and regional trade policy issues that member economies are facing.
For the issue of meeting new challenges in the 21st century, the ministers noted that the slowdown in economic growth since the second half of last year, the sluggish demand in the IT sector, turbulence appearing in financial markets, and tumbling exports, have jointly added uncertainty to the economic prospects of the region. To inject vigor into their respective economies, they agreed to further enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation to promote free and open trade and investment, and take early action to prevent possible economic disturbances.
Talking about the issue of making contributions to the multilateral trading system, the ministers firmly underlined APEC' s commitment to open regionalism and reaffirmed APEC's strong support for an open, equitable, sound and rule-based multilateral trading system, from which all economies, developed and developing ones alike, stand to benefit.
They also reaffirmed that APEC, accounting for nearly half of the world's trade, has a special responsibility to exhibit leadership in the multilateral trading system.
The ministers agreed that the WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in November in Qatar presents a critical opportunity for the expeditious launch of a new round of WTO talks in 2001. They further expressed determination to ensure the launch of the new round at the Qatar Conference.
The ministers reaffirmed APEC's determination to expedite the full and effective implementation of the WTO Uruguay Round agreements and commitments as well as the significance of enhancing capacity building for developing member economies, so as to build confidence among members for an early launch of the new round.
The ministers reaffirmed that the concerns of developing economies should be addressed through enhanced attention to the full and effective implementation of special and differential treatment as well as ongoing efforts for capacity building and technical assistance so as to facilitate their full participation in the WTO.
They welcomed the substantial progress made in the negotiations on China's accession to the WTO and called for rapid completion of the process in 2001. They also reiterated their support for the rapid accession of China's Taipei to the WTO, as well as the advancement of the accession process of Russia and Vietnam to the WTO.
The ministers welcomed the progress in the preparation of the 2nd APEC Investment Mart to be held on June 9-15 in Yantai, Shandong Province in China, which would create business opportunities in the region.
The ministers stressed the significance of trade facilitation for reducing costs of doing business in the region and reiterated that trade facilitation must remain a priority issue on the APEC agenda. They welcomed the work overseen by Canada on assessing the benefits of trade facilitation and the development of recommendations for an integrated APEC Capacity Building Program for trade facilitation.
Th ministers exchanged views on various forms of existing or emerging regional trade arrangements and free trade agreements in the region, and reaffirmed the importance of sub-regional and bilateral trade agreements to serve as building blocks for multilateral liberalization in the WTO.
China and Brunei Darussalam presented a report to the meeting on the APEC High Level Meeting on Human Capacity Building held in Beijing on May 14-16, 2001. They agreed that human capacity building should continue to be placed high in the APEC agenda. The ministers took note of SOM's report on the progress of biotechnology-related work and agreed that the development and application of biotechnology should take into consideration WTO rules, as well as consumers' interests in food safety and environmental quality.
They also encouraged close cooperation with other international forums and voluntary bodies, as appropriate, to enhance consumers' awareness of the benefits and risks of biotechnology products to facilitate the realization of the potential benefits of this technology.
While reaffirming the significance of the new economy to the economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region, the ministers welcomed progress made by APEC on issues related to the new economy. In order to narrow the existing digital divide between member economies, they emphasized the need to enhance economic and technical cooperation in various APEC forums and urged member economies to take effective actions.
The ministers congratulated China and Australia on the success of the APEC High-Level Symposium on Electronic Commerce and Paperless Trading on February 9-10 in Beijing, and endorsed the initiative of developing APEC Individual Action Plans (IAP) on Paperless Trading. They decided that the IAPs on Paperless Trading should be completed and reviewed by the MRT Meeting next year.
The Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade was held on June 6-7, 2001 in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. The trade ministers from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong of China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, Taipei of China, Thailand, the United States of America and Viet Nam participated in the meeting. The APEC Secretariat was present at the meeting. The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also attended the meeting as observers.
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