US and Russia Sign Long-Awaited WTO Agreement

Monday, 20, November, 2006 (29, Shawwal, 1427)

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6§ion=0&article=89049&d=20&m=11&y=2006&pix=business.jpg&category=Business

Tang Li, Arab News

HANOI, 20 November 2006 — The 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region ended their weekend summit in the Vietnamese capital with a statement warning that failure to get the Doha Round of trade talks moving would bring “grave” economic consequences to the global economy. The Statement, which was read by the Vietnamese President, Nguyn Minh Trit, represents a major commitment by the 21-member forum, which represents more than half the world’s economic activity (US, Japan and China, South Korea and Russia are all APEC members) in advancement of free-trade. “Support for the Doha Development Agenda remains a top priority of APEC. The consequences of the failure of the Doha Round would be too grave for our economies and for the global multilateral trading system,” said President Nguyn Minh Trit Asia-Pacific nations spent the weekend summit grappling with a US-backed proposal to create a vast, region-wide free-trade zone, which was proposed by US secretary of state, Dr. Condoleezza Rice earlier in the week. The US has continually argued that the idea would standardize the plethora of bilateral trade agreements among members and enforce some rules on an unwieldy economic organization. This idea has, however, met with resistance from some members of APEC who want to preserve the group’s non-binding principles. The American proposal for an APEC free-trade area is expected to be discussed over the next year “as a long-term prospect” and considered again at the next summit in Australia in 2007 The United Stastes was not the only nation calling for greater free-trade at the summit. China’s President Hu Jintao called for bigger APEC role in backing multilateral trading system and enhancing economic and technical cooperation in the region and the world as a whole. President Hu said that APEC needed to play a bigger role in highlighting the Doha Round of negotiations, saying APEC has played a major role in promoting the growth of the multilateral trading system and the current meeting should send a clear message to the world that Doha negotiations should be resumed speedily and major parties concerned work in a responsible and flexible manner to bridge their gaps. The cause of free-trade was also furthered in Vietnam when the US and Russia signed an agreement to bring Russia into the World Trade Organization. The agreement was signed by US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Russian Minister of Trade and Economic Development German Gref. Schwab said, “I’m pleased that we have concluded this important agreement with Russia’s WTO accession negotiations. This is a strong and far-reaching agreement that meets the high standards of President George W. Bush’s market-opening trade agenda and moves Russia closer to full integration into the global, rules-based trading system.” Russian Trade Minister Gref described the signing of the agreement as “An historic event and a milestone for Russia to integrate into the global economy.” European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said of APEC’s commitment to the Doha Round: “If all negotiating parties live up to the terms of that statement, then we have greater hope of resumption of negotiations” Although the summit focused on trade issues, the issue of North Korea also dominated many of the discussions. APEC leaders called for “concrete and effective steps’’ toward resuming six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program and the main consensus reached at APEC was that the next round of six-nation talks, which may be held in Beijing as soon as next month, must yield concrete results or, as South Korea warned on Nov. 16, that the credibility of the process could be “shattered.” Bush discussed North Korea with Chinese President Hu, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We talked about common interests and how we can work together to solve some of the world’s problems, including North Korea and Iran,” said President Bush after meeting President Putin.