APEC Countries to Standardize Trade Pacts

[Dover]

APEC Countries to Standardize Trade Pacts
Sat Nov 20, 2004 04:55 PM ET

By Fiona Ortiz

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Pacific Rim nations have agreed to set minimum standards for two-country free trade pacts proliferating across the region, a consolation prize for business leaders pushing for a 21-nation free trade area to rival the European Union.

There are 40 free trade agreements and 34 more in the pipeline between members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which represents almost half of world trade and whose leaders are meeting in Santiago.

Foreign and trade ministers from the United States, China, Japan, Russia and 17 other economies agreed this week to the guidelines, which aim to ensure such deals are comprehensive and do not leave out entire sectors of the economy, such as agriculture.

The guidelines, which were promoted by Chile, will not be legally binding, but officials from China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the United States said there was enthusiasm over the measures.

"China is a newcomer to free trade agreements. Certainly we would hope that all of the free trade agreements we would enter into will be high quality," said Chinese Foreign Ministry economic adviser Wang Xiaolong. He said China, which launched trade talks with Chile this week and said it was studying such talks with New Zealand, supported the guidelines.

A business leader and member of the APEC Business Advisory Council that makes recommendations to the leaders' forum said there were good signs even though APEC had not adopted the council's proposal to study becoming a free trade area...cont'd

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6875112