Economic leaders in bid to rescue global trade talks

Pacific Rim leaders today pledged political will and flexibility to rescue faltering global trade talks after forging an agreement to curb climate change they hope will influence a new global strategy on the problem.

“There has never been a more urgent need to make progress” in World Trade Organisation talks, said the leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum at the end of their annual summit. APEC’s economies account for nearly half of global trade and just over half the world’s economy.

The pledges on trade and global warming were the main outcomes from this year’s APEC gathering. After issuing final statements, the leaders headed for the exits, preceded a day earlier by US President George W. Bush, wrapping up the two-day summit.

In the round robin of diplomacy that accompanies the annual gatherings, Bush held a three-way meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, key allies in the Iraq war.

Abe told reporters today that he was ready to resign if parliament fails to renew a law authorising Japan’s Indian Ocean naval mission providing refuelling services for US-led forces in Afghanistan. That law is set to expire on November 1, and debate on it is expected to start tomorrow.

Also today, Australian military jets intercepted a small civilian plane after it flew toward airspace under restrictions to protect departing leaders. It was the second security breach of the summit after the cast of a television comedy show managed to pass through two security checkpoints in a sham motorcade.

This year’s statements on trade and climate change attempt to influence negotiations taking place elsewhere.

“We pledge the political will, flexibility and ambition to ensure the Doha Round negotiations enter their final phase this year,” the leaders said in a statement.

“We call on our WTO partners to join in this vital effort.”

Negotiations resumed in Geneva last week on two new proposals to break a deadlock between rich and poor nations over how much to cut barriers in agricultural and industrial trade. APEC leaders said early progress on these issues is needed to ensure the talks succeed.

A successful global trade deal would “deliver new trade flows for the benefit of all, including developing countries,” the leaders said, adding their strong backing for a rules-based, global trading system.

The Pacific Rim leaders also said they will continue to examine a proposal to create a Pacific-wide free-trade zone that would stretch from China to Chile and include all 21 APEC members. The idea, first floated three years ago, has been proposed by business leaders as an alternative should global trade talks ultimately fail.

Howard claimed success today for the summit’s centrepiece agreement on climate change. The agreement, he said, on two nonbinding goals – on improving energy efficiency and increasing forest cover – were important steps toward building a new international consensus for tackling the problem.

“No one meeting, no one agreement is going to fix this issue,” Howard said at the summit’s final press conference, but the declaration was “a very significant step” in the debate.

The APEC program does not set targets on the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, unlike the UN-backed Kyoto Protocol.

Instead, APEC members will reduce “energy intensity” – the amount of energy needed to produce a dollar of gross domestic product – 25% by 2030. They pledged to increase forest cover in the region by at least 50 million acres by 2020.

Though environmental activists and some climate change experts dismissed the agreement as too timid, supporters said the significance lay in getting APEC’s diverse grouping to agree to common goals.

APEC contains four of the world’s biggest polluters: the US, China, Russia and Japan. So the agreement may influence upcoming talks in Washington, New York and Indonesia on a new climate change blueprint to replace Kyoto, which expires in 2012.

APEC leaders also said the grouping would not consider admitting new members before 2010, leaving India and 11 other countries who have applied waiting.