China issue chance for glory

By Yoke Har Lee

The Sino-US meeting between presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton will be the defining issue of this weekend's Apec meeting, National MP Dr Wayne Mapp says.

The bilateral meeting is expected to define the path for China's entry to the World Trade Organisation.

"Success on this one issue would make Auckland as important to Apec as the Bogor leaders meeting in 1994," Dr Mapp told an Apec seminar cum trade fair organised by the World Trade Centre yesterday. (The Bogor meeting in Indonesia agreed to remove tariffs among Apec members by 2020).

Referring to cynics seeing Apec as having failed when it forwarded discussions on key sector liberalisation to the WTO, Dr Mapp, a member of Parliament's select committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade, said: "What is forgotten by those commentators is that the transfer has strengthened the WTO negotiation round. It means the millennium round of the WTO will be a full trade round.

"That is why it was so important for Mike Moore to take the first period as director-general. This will mean someone resolutely committed to the agenda of free trade will be leading the WTO during the critical millennium round. This is the first big test for the WTO to continue towards trade liberalisation.

"So a sideways shift from Apec to the WTO is in fact of utmost importance. It shows how Apec can stimulate what is still the central trade negotiation body; the WTO. Major progress in the WTO millennium round will make the Bogor vision easier to fulfil," he said.

Dr Mapp added however that trade realists know that the WTO negotiations would not lead to global free trade by 2020. "The Apec economies are going to have to do much more to achieve the Bogor vision. That will clearly test their resolve."

Meanwhile Labour MP Ross Robertson said Apec's credibility would be decided by the quality of leaders attending and how other members match New Zealand's advance in liberalisation.

He criticised the US for tarnishing the spirit of Apec by slapping tariffs on Australasian lamb. And while he was in favour of New Zealand using Apec as a platform to diversify its market, Mr Robertson said Apec needed a broader perspective beyond that of trade liberalisation.

For ACT MP Patricia Schnauer, talk about trade barriers needed to be put in perspective with the high compliance costs for small firms.

The average small business in New Zealand filled out 168 forms a year, which was more than three a week. And over the last 10 years, New Zealand had passed 5200 new laws and regulations affecting small businesses while Hong Kong, in comparison, passed only 1000.

On Apec, Ms Schnauer said the process was fundamental. "I have no doubt that if Apec did not exist, we would be reinventing it."