APEC Chile Summit: First World Recovery from Cancun Setbacks?

As developments seem to show, the First World bloc had as its agenda in the pre-summit APEC Ministerial Meeting in Santiago, Chile the drive to get what it failed to achieve in last year’s stalled WTO talks in Cancun, Mexico. The Santiago delegates agreed to strengthen support for the WTO, among other things.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

The Cancun talks collapsed because of protests from leaders of Third World countries, who asserted that the conditions pushed by the First World were highly detrimental to their countries’ economies. Thousands of anti-globalization activists and figures from all over the world and from all ideological shades also converged at Cancun to stop the talks or push for WTO reforms.

Attending the Santiago summit are heads of state and their trade ministers from 21 countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the U.S., and Vietnam.

Weeks before the APEC summit, anti-globalization activists battled with police. The summit was also held in the midst of another event – the Chilean people’s clamor for the prosecution of former strongman, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who is being made to account for numerous atrocities committed in the 1970s-1980s.

Trade liberalization

In an interview with Bulatlat, Athena Peralta, World Council of Churches (WCC) consultant on women and economy, said that since the collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun last year (which, according to some analysts, signalled the impending “death” of multilateralism in the global trading regime), the U.S. and, to a lesser degree, the European Union and Japan has redoubled efforts to reach bilateral as well as regional trade deals with favoured countries. “These deals are of course primarily aimed at ensuring and expanding U.S. access to potential markets for American products,” she said.

According to Peralta, who graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics and pursued graduate studies at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands, agreements reached at the APEC meeting would be significant, with the trade bloc accounting for 47 percent of world trade and the Asia Pacific being the fastest-growing region in the world.

But APEC is also a diverse bloc of high-, middle- and low-income countries, making for more tricky negotiations, Peralta said. In this context, she said, the U.S., which possesses tremendous bargaining power as the world’s biggest economy, is likely to push for accelerated trade negotiations and concessions especially in the area of services.

True enough, in the APEC Ministerial Meeting held Nov. 18 and 19 as part of the summit in Santiago, the delegates reaffirmed their commitment “to the improvement of and liberalization within the multilateral trading system. In their joint statement issued at the conclusion of the pre-leaders’ summit Ministerial Meeting Nov. 19, the delegates stressed “the importance of agricultural reform, including the abolition of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and unjustifiable export prohibitions and restrictions at an early date, substantial reduction of trade-distorting domestic support, as well as substantial improvements in market access.”

They also called for the further elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers for non-agricultural goods. All APEC members pledged to submit “improved revised offers” by May 2005. They also reaffirmed the improving WTO rules.

Corruption

The stamping-out of corruption was also on the agenda of the APEC meeting in Santiago.

Corruption is one of the “most serious threats to good governance and the proper development of economic systems in the APEC region, and globally,” the joint statement reads. The ministers agreed to combat corruption in order to strengthen “the core foundations of our collective values in society, in particular in the areas of economic development, growth, and prosperity.”

Anti-corruption is supposed to have been the thrust of the policy on transparency in government procurement pushed by the First World countries in Cancun last year. At the APEC conference in Santiago, the delegates among other things agreed to take steps toward ratification of or accession to, and implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC); the strengthening of effective measures to prevent and fight corruption and ensure transparency, the denial of “safe haven” to officials and individuals guilty of public corruption, those who corrupt them, and their assets; combating both public and private sector corruption; promoting public-private partnerships, and the nurturing of cooperation to combat corruption in the Asia-Pacific region.

The anti-corruption thrust of the Santiago conference has been seen as an attempt to score some propaganda points for the First World bloc. The bloc led by the United States, Japan and EU countries, has been under increasing criticism in recent years from leaders of poor countries affected by pro-globalization measures it has been imposing through trade agreements.

But the drive against corruption, Peralta said, does not stem from any altruistic motivation.

“Stamping out corruption is seen to lower business transaction costs for investors and, therefore, measures to improve governance and transparency are seen as a boost for investments,” she said.

“While a valid concern, poor governance and corruption in Southern countries have been increasingly used in the mainstream development discourse as scapegoats for the failure of neoliberal economic policies, including trade liberalization policies,” she also noted. “It is often conveniently forgotten that ‘it takes two to tango’ and it is not unknown for foreign and multinational investors to offer kickbacks to local officials and partners in exchange for facilitating their business projects.”

Infectious diseases

Meanwhile, the taking of steps toward the eradication of infectious diseases was also on the Santiago agenda. The joint statement itself explains the underlying reason for such concern: “Ministers recognized that outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as SARS in 2003 and avian influenza in 2004, have a profound impact on both the peoples and the economies of the region. They encouraged continued vigilance and preparedness so as to detect, respond to, and mitigate the impact on the economy of public health threats.”

As Peralta noted, “The airline, tourism and retail industries experienced rough times, slightly dampening overall growth rates for some Asian countries.”

She also said that the APEC’s avowed concern for the spread of infectious diseases would have to be matched by concrete steps.

“To date, for instance, too little funds have actually been generated for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (even as the U.S. and other countries expend billions of dollars on wars and invasions),” she noted.

“Moreover, any genuine attempt to fight HIV/AIDS and illnesses has to seriously reconsider the WTO agreement on TRIPS in relation to public health and medicines. The current interpretation of this agreement still leaves much to be desired in terms of allowing poor countries access to generic drugs at affordable rates,” she said. Bulatlat

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