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Apec cites progress in tariffs

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific countries are making "very real progress" in hammering out details of trade liberalisation in the region, an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum official said on Friday.

Chris Butler, chairman of APEC's Committee on Trade & Investment (CTI), told a news conference that tariffs and customs procedures were among the areas that saw concrete progress during a committee meeting this week.

He said the goal was to implement a blueprint agreed at APEC's Osaka summit last year aimed at turning the loose grouping into a regional community.

"This is a long-term, consistent, serious process of getting a very comprehensive agenda put in place. The time frames we're talking about aren't months," Butler said.

The CTI oversees 15 topics under APEC's trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation agenda, including tariffs, services, investment, standards and conformance, intellectual property rights and deregulation.

"In some areas, such as customs procedures, which are very important as an element of business transaction costs in the region, there's been a lot of progress made already," he said.

APEC's members have agreed to liberalise trade and investment by the year 2010 for developed member economies and 2020 for its newly industrialised countries. The group has agreed to begin implementing the plan from January 1, 1997.

The forum groups 18 members from Asia and North and South America, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

Several other countries have indicated interest in membership or some form of participation. These include Russia, India, Vietnam, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mongolia, Laos and Panama.-Reuter