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HK to push

trade freedom

at Singapore

WTO meeting

HONG KONG: Hong Kong will push for more rapid trade liberalisation in the first World Trade Organisation (WTO) conference to be held in Singapore in December, said the colony's top trade official on Friday.

Tony Miller, director-general of trade, also said Hong Kong would want to see tariffs, particularly on textiles and clothing, abolished immediately.

" (In) Singapore, you can expect us to push for more and more rapid liberalisation. We want to set targets for completely free trade, rather than only agreeing on the next Limited incremental cut," he said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce.

"We want to see several tariffs abolished immediately. We also want to see textiles and clothing removed more rapidly from their current quota straightjacket," he said.

The Singapore conference in December will be the WTO's first ministerial meeting.

Miller also urged the revamp of rules for trade and investment as he said there was now a complete mismatch between trading instruments and the way business operates.

"When rules become part of the problem, it is time to re-examine the rules," he said, adding that Hong Kong would urge ministers attending the Singapore conference to agree to a broad-based, objective examination of the relevance of current rules for trade and investment.

He also said the conference should address the problem of disadvantaged economies which have been left out of the chase for wealth due to trade barriers and restrictions.-Reuter