Burdon puts brave face on muted reform stance

By Yoke Har Lee

Business delegates to the Apec trade ministers' conference are disappointed at the lack of immediate backing for further reform.

New Zealand Trade Minister Lockwood Smith tried his best to drum up the debate, one delegate said.

"He picked up everything Philip Burdon [Apec business advisory council chairman] said, telling them Philip had laid the challenge for them. But there wasn't a great response, except from Australia."

As chairman of the Apec business advisory council (Abac), Mr Burdon had delivered a forthright message to ministers on the need for further trade reform and the need to hold individual countries accountable for its implementation. Mr Burdon, however, would not speculate on whether his message got across.

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to say how the message was received," he said. "We simply presented our ambitions to the official process and made it very clear we are committed to trade liberalisation. It is now up to the official process to respond to initiatives Abac has proposed."

Among those initiatives are the individual action plans which spell out how each country would achieve the liberalisation targets set by Apec. Several countries have reported on their plans, but so far only in generalities.

"Action plans go to the core of the credibility of the whole process," said Mr Burdon. "Either they clearly benchmark the way forward or they will remain as well-intentioned homilies, and be discredited because of the lack of substance."

Several delegates who attended the presentation were uneasy about the muted response coming from the trade ministers. "Specifically in the area of action plans, there was silence from the ministers," one delegate said. "Does this mean consent or was there too much to digest? We view it as there being limited response," one delegate said.

Abac's goals have outpaced the official process. The private sector from the Apec countries, who are appointed by each Apec government, have agreed to recommend to their governments proposals including pursuit of an Apec-wide food system, which covers liberalising trade in the food sector and liberalising air services.

Cyril Murphy, United Airline's vice-president for international network development, said the air services proposal may have won the day. Another delegate said there was some reaction to the air services recommendation but no reaction on the action plans.