Business and Government Representatives Highlight Value of Free Trade Agreements as Back-up for WTO Negotiations
Business leaders and government officials from APEC Member Economies have met in Ho Chi Minh City to clarify the business relevance of Regional Trade Arrangements and Free Trade Agreements (RTAs/FTAs).
The 2006 APEC Policy Dialogue on RTAs/FTAs was the first to involve business representatives that included leading executives from FedEx, the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and the Mexican Trade Business Organization Network.
FedEx Express Managing Director and United States alternative representative to the APEC Business Advisory Council, Mr. Ralph Carter, highlighted the business community?s desire that current WTO negotiations produce a comprehensive agreement.
"Most businesses, if offered a choice, would prefer to liberalize trade through the multilateral or WTO approach," Mr. Carter said to the dialogue meeting.
"However, as the Doha round has shown us, the WTO process is becoming much more difficult.
"Free trade agreements are therefore an important compliment to the WTO and can be quite successful in stimulating trade. FTAs can open up new markets, expand investment opportunities, lower the cost of doing business and provide important legal protections for investors and operators."
The First Deputy Minister of Viet Nam?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. LE Cong Phung, highlighted the value of RTAs and FTAs to APEC's ultimate goals.
"High quality RTAs and FTAs are important avenues to achieve APEC's free and open trade and investment," Mr Le said at the meeting.
"The current situation in Geneva regarding DDA negotiations, as you all know, may add more new RTAs/FTAs to our inventory."
"In this dialogue today we wish to hear practical views from private sector representatives on the impacts of RTAs and FTAs and what you expect from APEC work in this area."
The meeting was the fourth diolague by APEC Senior Officials on RTAs/FTAs since the issue first formally appeared on the APEC Agenda in 2003. APEC has since established a comprehensive database on RTAs/FTAs undertaken by APEC members that is now available on APEC website.
The proliferation of RTAs/FTAs in recent years has seen the signing of 34 RTAs/FTAs in the APEC Region and around 325 RTAs/FTAs world-wide that have been presented to the GATT and WTO. Of these more than 200 were agreed over the last eleven years. By the end of 2005 the WTO estimates that more than fifty-one percent of all world merchandise was traded under preferential agreements.