NZ in thick of free trade moves

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

New Zealand looks set to play a pivotal role in the formation of a giant free-trade area linking the Asia-Pacific with the Americas.

That has emerged after nearly a week of conferencing by 45 Asia-Pacific powerbrokers and staff and officials in Auckland.

The business leaders - here for a meeting of Apec's business advisory council - took up Prime Minister Helen Clark's challenge to launch bold new initiatives to support a successful WTO round.

A trans-Pacific business agenda has been floated and they will urge Apec political leaders to launch a taskforce to explore a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

Auckland academic Robert Scollay - an unsung hero in New Zealand business circles - has done preliminary work on a FTAAP.

There are suggestions that if an FTAAP is ultimately to get traction, New Zealand, along with other nations such as Chile, Australia and Singapore (and maybe the US), should form the nucleus to which other nations will sign on.

There may not be sufficient time for Clark and a group of like-minded Apec leaders to get the proposal before the upcoming Santiago leaders meeting in November. But it would offer an unparalleled opportunity for New Zealand to take a lead in the region.

The powerbrokers - a mixture of chief executives, industry federation representatives, bankers and communication experts - are from the 21 nations that comprise Apec.

Debate was closed. But serious concerns over trade liberalisation surfaced.

Canada's Pierre Lortie, who is a key proponent of the FTAAP, notes even a successful Doha Round will not necessarily remove all the impediments to trade.

As trade barriers go down, new obstacles emerge, Lortie told the Herald. He believes the web of bilateral agreements being negotiated to criss-cross the Pacific is a recipe for problems.

Mike Ducker, from US-based FedEx International, praised the role Kiwi Tim Groser has played in getting a new framework agreed for agriculture negotiations at the WTO.

But Ducker cautioned the United States Trade Representatives office (USTR), which has a mere 150 trade negotiators, has a huge amount on its plate just dealing with the WTO's Doha Round. The FTAAP is a useful backstop.

What is clear is that the group has given a resounding vote of approval to the role New Zealand plays in pushing the boundaries of trade liberalisation.