Word: apec
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FRESH FROM HIS FREE-TRADE TRIUMPH in the Americas, Bill Clinton bounded onstage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Seattle last week, singing the glories of pan-Pacific free trade. Amity and optimism were watchwords as the U.S. President greeted leaders from 14 other APEC members, sat through bilateral meetings and swept the whole group off for a casual get- together on nearby Blake Island. There the leaders issued a vague but upbeat joint statement on their shared "economic vision" for the Asia- Pacific area. Said Clinton at a Saturday press conference: "We've agreed that the Asia...
...four-year-old association of 11 Asian nations and the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. At this point, it amounts to little more than a trade-issues study group. Though Washington has avoided taking any position on the matter for now, the U.S. might eventually prefer to see APEC become a mechanism to bind Pacific Rim nations into a NAFTA-style trade family, especially in the face of sentiment building among some Asian nations in favor of regional trade arrangements that exclude the U.S. "The U.S. has at long last started to look seriously at its trade interests...
Washington's flirtation with Asia is also designed to make Europe jealous. U.S. trade across the Pacific is already 50% greater than its transatlantic counterpart, a sizable change from 1980, when the figures were about equal. The European Community knows that APEC could provide the U.S. with a consortium to fall back on in the event of a breakdown in current negotiations over the 111-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which aims to reduce trade barriers throughout the world. As a Dec. 15 deadline approaches, those talks have bogged down on several issues, especially the European Community...
Should Washington ever try to push APEC toward becoming an Asian NAFTA, the task will not be easy. Less developed Pacific nations are averse to any trade pact that might compel them to lower tariffs protecting fledgling industries. If Clinton shows up in Seattle without a win on NAFTA, Asian nations will also be under less pressure to deal; one reason for them even to consider a Pacific Rim trade group is to ensure themselves a defensive base in the event that GATT should fail or NAFTA take a protectionist turn. Thus the White House has been playing down this...