Global Policy Forum

By Calvin Simms

Efforts to restart global trade talks, which failed in Seattle last year amid riots, received a push today when 21 nations of the Asia and Pacific region agreed to set a date of 2001 to form an agenda and begin negotiations for eliminating trade barriers. The agreement reached by leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, was a victory for the Clinton administration, which has made free trade a top priority and has often used this Pacific Rim forum to press its free-trade agenda.

The accord ensures that no matter who wins the White House, or who succeeds other departing leaders of APEC, a mandate and deadline have been set for reviving trade talks. "We believe that a balanced and sufficiently broad-based agenda that responds to the interests and concerns of all World Trade Organization members should be formulated and finalized as soon as possible in 2001, and that a round be launched in 2001," the leaders said in a statement. But the agreement amounted to little more than a consensus that the talks must restart. It did not address the subject that blew up the Seattle meeting, the fears among developing nations that the United States would impose labor and environmental standards that would undercut the competitiveness of poorer nations.

Saying they were tired of being railroaded into agreements that were not in their best interest, the developing nations, led by Malaysia, initially insisted on seeing an agenda before agreeing to a fixed starting date for negotiations. After two days of heated debate, mainly by United States and Brunei leaders, a compromise was reached that both the agenda and initiation of talks would be achieved by next year. It was the first time that the group had met in this oil-rich sultanate of 300,000 people who have one of the highest standards of living in Southeast Asia but are governed by an absolute monarchy, the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. Known for his gilded palaces, fleets of luxury cars and other excesses, the sultan, in a speech to delegates, warned that "disparities between the rich and poor continue to grow, and many people are at risk of being marginalized."

Still, the sultan treated the regional heads of state to ornate pins of gold and precious stones and in keeping with an APEC tradition, matching wacky shirts — the color was deep blue this year. For President Clinton, who is widely recognized as having been the driving force behind the group, the forum marked what was likely his last meeting with many world leaders. Today, Mr. Clinton met separately with the Japanese prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, and President Jiang Zemin of China.

Aides to Mr. Clinton said that in his meeting with Mr. Mori, the two leaders mainly discussed the situation in North Korea, but that the president also expressed opposition to Japan's stepped-up whaling activities. White House aides said that Mr. Clinton discussed nonproliferation issues with the Chinese leader, and aides indicated a significant development was in the works. Mr. Clinton and Singapore's prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, agreed to negotiate a free-trade agreement between their nations that would be modeled after a recent accord between the United States and Jordan that removed all trade barriers between the two countries.

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