After dressing up in a traditional Korean overcoat, called "Turumage," for a group photo in front of the Nurimaru APEC House, leaders of the 21 member economies of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) brought an end to their two-day meeting today.

 

 

The Asia-Pacific Rim leaders gathered in Busan, South Korea to discuss investment opportunities in the region, the rising threat of a possible bird flu pandemic and concerns about stalled global trade talks.

 

As a tangible result, the APEC economic leaders adopted a Busan Declaration, a Statement on Doha Development Agenda (DDA) Negotiations, and a Statement on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic.

 

The documents promise efforts to revive deadlocked global trade talks, reaffirm the Bogor Goals, and fight against human security threats like bird flu and serious natural disasters.

 

APEC leaders "have reiterated their support for the WTO since the inception of the Economic Leaders' Meeting," the declaration says.

 

"We showed our strong political will in a separate statement, in which we declared our firm support for the DDA negotiations to proceed expeditiously so as to achieve an ambitious and overall balanced outcome at the end of the round," it says.

 

The DDA, established in 2001, sets out goals for liberalizing trade in agriculture, manufactured goods and services, while allowing developing countries time to strengthen fragile industries.

 

The trade negotiations have stalled due to strong objections from the developed nations, especially European countries. The EU's reduction of tariffs on agricultural products and farm subsidies has been considered the key to resurrecting the troubled talks.

 

EU officials, however, have argued that it is also necessary for developing countries to open up their service and manufacturing sectors.

 

The declaration says APEC leaders welcomed the outcomes of the Mid-term Stocktake on the progress toward achieving the Bogor Goals, which confirm that APEC has made momentous strides toward free and open trade and investment.

 

The Bogor Goals, named after the city in Indonesia where they were declared in 1994, specify the APEC objectives for eliminating developed members' trade and investment barriers by 2010, and those of developing members by 2020.

 

How to prevent a possible avian influenza pandemic is another important issue APEC leaders discussed during their meeting.

 

"We agreed on collective, practical measures, including strengthening cooperation and technical assistance among APEC economies to limit avian influenza at its source and prevent human outbreaks," the declaration says.

 

Under the APEC 2005 theme, "Toward One Community: Meet the Challenge, Make the Change," the Economic Leaders' Meeting advanced their common vision of achieving stability, security and prosperity for the region's peoples.

 

APEC leaders also seek to reduce global disparity. "We agreed to conduct a study of ways to confront the challenges and impediments related to socio-economic disparity issues," they said in the declaration.

 

 

The APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting was held after foreign and trade ministers from the 21 member economies reached agreement on supporting the deadlocked global trade negotiations and ways to combat terrorism and bird flu.

 

After a two-day APEC Ministerial Meeting, the ministers agreed on November 16 that there are differences among participants in global trade talks, and said the success of WTO ministerial talks slated for December in Hong Kong is a "critical" step toward completing the DDA by the end of 2006.

 

The ministerial meeting was preceded by a two-day APEC Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting, which started November 12 to prepare documents for the series of APEC meetings.

 

Meanwhile, an APEC CEO Summit was held between November 16 and 18.

 

The CEO Summit was officially recognized as a sideline event and gained its current name at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Auckland in 1999.

 

At the event, nine economic leaders from 21 APEC member economies spoke before global business magnates on issues ranging from economic policy to trade and taxation, while policymakers also had opportunities to receive feedback from them.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2005)