Pacific Rim talks focus on North Korea
Trade ministers tried to keep the Pacific Rim summit focused on its economic agenda today as sideline discussions on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme threatened to steal the show in Vietnam.
The 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) meeting is hoping to find ways to kick-start stalled World Trade Organisation talks, but with so many top officials in one place it is also a chance to meet face-to-face to discuss security issues that have risen in priority since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
This is the first big meeting since North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on October 9, then agreed earlier this month to return to six-party talks on its nuclear programme that have been stalled for a year.
Officials were taking advantage of the opportunity to work out a common strategy.
“We had some in-depth, substantive discussions on what outcome we should try to achieve,” top South Korean nuclear negotiator Chun Yung-woo said. “I think we’re making good progress.”
Chun warned of the consequences of being unable to convince North Korea to drop its atomic weapons programme when the six-party talks resume, probably next month.
“We cannot afford to fail,” he said.
US envoy Christopher Hill said it was crucial to plan “very carefully” for the talks.
“No one, China nor Russia nor any of the three of us, has any intention of accepting North Korea as a nuclear state. I think we’ve all made that very clear,” he said after meeting the Japanese and South Korean envoys.
Apec, formed in 1989 as an economic forum, has rapidly expanded its agenda in recent years to cover political, security and even environmental and health issues.
Its members, including the US, China, Japan and Russia, comprise 57% of the world’s economy, 45% of its trade and 41% of its population.
WTO head Pascal Lamy attended today’s ministerial meetings in Hanoi, suggesting the group was hoping for real progress in reviving the stalled global trade talks.
An agreement at the weekend summit on a way to revive the talks could help move them forward, despite the absence of the European Union and other important players such as India and Brazil, said Chris DeCure, chairman of Apec’s Committee on Trade and Investment.
The current Doha round of WTO talks collapsed in July with the US and the EU unable to reach a compromise on cutting farm subsidies and tariffs.
“I think we’ll see some very important outcomes,” DeCure said. “Progress on the Doha round is our number-one priority. There is no question about that.”
A draft statement to be released after the weekend summit warns that grave economic consequences would result from the failure of the global trade talks. The draft urges negotiators to reconvene and be more flexible.
WTO members want to conclude negotiations before US President George Bush’s authority to negotiate a trade deal that can be submitted to Congress for a simple yes-or-no vote without amendments expires in mid-2007.
