APEC Trade Ministers Breakthrough Contribution to WTO Negotiations
APEC Trade Ministers have agreed on a formula for the calculations of future tariffs that they hope will lead to the unblocking of stalled WTO trade negotiations.
While there are still technical details to work out, Member Economies were in agreement that the 'Swiss formula' should be used to calculate tariff reductions in non-agricultural products.
The details still to be worked out relate to the calculation of a coefficient in the mathematical formula used to calculate future tariff cuts. Ministers have directed their representatives in Geneva to continue to work out the calculation of the coefficient.
Attended by Trade Ministers and their representatives from APEC's 21 Member Economies, together with WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, the 11th Meeting of APEC Ministers' Responsible for Trade was held in Jeju, Korea, on June 2-3.
The breakthrough in discussions is particularly positive for all members of the WTO as they prepare for the much anticipated WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong in December.
Having reached a collective position, APEC Member Economies that account for around half of the world?s trade and represent a range of developed and developing economies, will be able to present a common position to WTO members. By reaching consensus APEC Member Economies will present a unified position that it is hoped will add positive weight to negotiations to achieve consensus from all members of the WTO.
Ministers set to their agenda on WTO DDA recognizing the urgency of the need to gain a consensus and provide a breakthrough for the current WTO round while recognizing the ambition of what they were seeking to accomplish.
One of the central priorities throughout was to achieve a balanced outcome that progressed both agriculture and non-agricultural issues in WTO negotiations.
At the conclusion of discussions in Jeju, Korea, Ministers issued a specific statement on WTO DDA Negotiations that addressed these core issues. (Available at www.apec.org)
The statement outlines five key areas in which Ministers called for no effort to be spared to produce meaningful "first approximations" by July in order to lay a solid basis for a successful outcome of the Hong Kong Ministerial. These areas cover trade in agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA), services, trade facilitation and the development dimension in all negotiating areas.
In their statement on WTO DDA Negotiations Ministers welcomed the planned visit of representatives from the APEC Business Advisory Council to Geneva that is intended to provide business input to DDA negotiations.
Other areas covered in the statement included a further commitment of support for the APEC Best Practices for Regional Trade Agreements and Free Trade Agreements as well as APEC's ongoing work on trade facilitation.
Ministers also reaffirmed their commitment to the liberalization of Information Technology products that includes three specific products; multi-chip integrated circuits, digital multifunctional machines and modems.
The full statement as well as the Statement of the Chair is available from the APEC Website: www.apec.org