Sunday, November 13

Towards a Leader-led East-Asia Summit

The inaugural East Asia Summit is being held in Kuala Lumpur at the same time as trade ministers from the 148 members of the World Trade Organisation meet in Hong Kong to hammer out an agreement for global trade.
The talks on liberalising world trade have ended in failure and mutual recrimination this week, and the negotiators are now desperately seeking face-saving measures and are expected to downgrade their expectations.
The situation was no different when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad first proposed the East Asia Economic Grouping (EAEG). The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, then under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt), were in serious trouble. Developing countries had little clout in the negotiations; they were "locked" out of the "green rooms", their voice not heard and their concerns not listened to by the major developed powers.
The EAEG - later renamed the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) with the proposed membership to include Asean members, China, Japan and South Korea - was designed to give countries in the region a collective voice in multilateral negotiations, including world trade.
But it was vehemently opposed by the United States. Washington described the proposal as "drawing a line in the Pacific". The first President Bush's Secretary of State, James Baker III, admitted in his book "The Politics of Diplomacy" that "in private, I did my best to kill it" even though in public "I took a moderate line".
But the idea did not die. The East Asian financial crisis only served to emphasise the need for the region to co-operate and to devise self-help measures. Thus the EAEC idea - which evolved into the Asean-plus-three concept, the precursor of the East Asia Summit - gained greater acceptance in the region even though the US and other countries continued to see it as a "threat". Much water has flowed under the bridge and the idea has come to fruition.
But it is deja vu all over again. The trade talks under the auspices of the WTO have stalled, the blame game between the developed countries continues with developing countries complaining that they are being ignored and left out of the action.Tensions between the developed and developing countries have risen to the surface.
Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath, an important player in the negotiations for developing countries, says European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson wants his "pound of flesh".
Agriculture, specifically the massive subsidies offered to farmers by developed nations, continues to be a major contentious issue. While the Americans say that EU has not gone far enough, Mandelson has dug in his heels, adding that the "European Union won't flex any further than it has on agricultural tariffs and subsidies" and "this I will not give".
With negotiators unable to make headway and desperate for face-saving measures "as there just isn't time enough in the light of the divergence", leaders may have to provide the necessary push for an acceptable outcome.
And leaders who will be in Kuala Lumpur for the Asean and East Asia Summits, at the same time when world trade ministers gather in Hong Kong, could help provide the necessary push to the Doha Development Round.
Collectively, the 16 nations, Asean 10, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand, account for more than 30 per cent of world trade, some 22 per cent of global GDP and about half of the world's population. They are better placed to speak for the poor and developing countries and have vested interests to see the Doha Round succeed.
Far from being a "black box", the grouping will by necessity and by choice be an "open and inclusive organisation" and remain engaged with other regions and nations. A "closed trade bloc is not an option for East Asia" and the US and others should have no worries or concerns.
Asean, which is at the core of the East Asia Summit, has demonstrated that it is outward looking and not exclusive. This is clearly evident in its willingness to include countries like Australia, India and New Zealand in the inaugural summit.
East Asia has been a valuable partner in global peace and stability by ensuring regional peace and security. The Summit in Kuala Lumpur will reiterate the region's continued commitment to peace and security and its importance for trade expansion and development.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said it would be a "leaders-led summit". In most meetings and summits, the senior officials work out details of discussions for the leaders. And it usually turns out that the leaders review and endorse the submissions made to them.
However, in this case Abdullah, who will chair the summit, stressed that he wanted it to be a truly leaders-led summit, where the leaders would come out with something worthwhile.
Thus, in addition to working out a "shared vision for Asia", the leaders would also be helping the poor and unfortunate gain from world trade by helping to push the process forward, help alleviate poverty, help to give the world economy a boost and help achieve the stated goals of the Doha Development Agenda.
This will be a major and significant contribution of the inaugural East Asia Summit, not only for the region but also for the multilateral trading system and stem the rising tide of protectionism.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home