The 14th Asia-Pacific summit slated for this week in Hanoi is the last chance for APEC economic leaders to de-ice the Doha Round stalemate and restart the stalled trade talks, officials at the Concluding Senior Officials’ Meeting (CSOM) have said.
Resumption of the Doha Round is among the six top key reports to be submitted to Ministers and Leaders of 21 APEC members later in the week.
SOM Chair, Vietnam’s first Deputy Foreign Minister Le Cong Phung stressed at the press briefing after the two-day CSOM ended yesterday the APEC summit helps raise the expectations on the host country, which will tap this opportunity to clear the stalemate on the Doha Round.
On this occasion, Vietnam will make important contributions to the world community, particularly when it has been recently admitted into the World Trade Organization, Phung noted.
Among the significant reports, the Hanoi Action Plan, one of Vietnam’s important initiatives at the Asia-Pacific Summit, a follow-up of the Busan Roadmap, is hailed as a guide for economic and trade cooperation within the APEC bloc as a very balanced package in the next 15 years.
CSOM also covered wide range of other issues including economy, trade, investment, human security, counter-terrorism, disaster and pandemic management, cultural and tourism cooperation, anti-corruption and APEC reforms.
At the event, senior officials endorsed the annual report by the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) including the second phase Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP), which calls on member nations to reduce business transaction costs to 5 per cent in 2006-2010 period.
Members will continue to discuss issues in setting up the Free Trade Area in Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) suggested by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).
Tran Thu Hang, Deputy Director General of the Multilateral Trade Policy of the Trade Ministry and Vietnam’s SOM leader stressed the target cannot be realized in the near future, noting more changes in APEC’s mechanism to be required to be made.
Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Sasaki, co-head of the Japan’s CSOM delegation and Deputy Director General of the Japan’s Trade Policy Bureau said APEC-wide FTA is larger than the proposed East Asia FTA.
Masashi Mizukami, co-head of Japan’s CSOM delegation and Deputy Director General of the Japan’s Foreign Ministry’s Bureau of Economic Affairs stressed the bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being negotiated between Vietnam and Japan will benefit both countries.
(Local sources)
Vietnamese
