John Armstrong: Judgment Day on hold at Apec

Tomorrow should have been the Day of Reckoning at this year's Apec summit - the day the trumpeting of some member economies about their free-trade credentials would be found badly wanting.

It should be the day the free-trade rhetoric of some countries sits awkwardly with actual progress made in that direction.

Unfortunately, trade diplomacy involves, well, being diplomatic.

A league table of who's best at opening their borders would mean embarrassment for those on the lower rungs. And that cannot be allowed to happen.

In Apec, everyone's a winner. There are no losers. Back in 1994, the 21-member grouping set a deadline of 2010 for industrialised members to completely free up trade and investment. Developing economies were given an extra decade's grace.

All year, the Apec secretariat in Singapore has been duly conducting wide-ranging assessments of how well the industrialised economies have performed.

With minimal tariffs averaging only 2.2 per cent, New Zealand has taken out the bronze medal, pushing Australia, which sits at 3.5 per cent, into fourth place. Not that that stopped Canberra crowing about how open its economy is now. Tell that to New Zealand orchardists who've had a near-century-long fight to get their apples into Australia.

The winners were Singapore and Hong Kong, which have no tariffs.

However, these results are unofficial. They won't be mentioned in tomorrow's official communique which is released as the two-day meeting of Pacific Rim economies winds up discussions in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

Instead, a section of the communique will refer to the progress Apec has made as a whole towards the so-called Bogor goals.

The reports on individual economies will be quietly released in coming weeks once everyone has gone home.

This sort of political correctness is why Apec survives. Every decision has to be unanimous; no one is put on notice or under pressure to deliver on the worthy sentiments expressed in the communique every year.

Everyone knows who the villains are. But vilifying them in public is a definite no-no, especially when one of them is this year's host.