October 19, 2001	Friday	Shaba'an 1, 1422

SHANGHAI, Oct 18: Pacific-Rim nations, worried about the outlook for global growth after September 11, called on Thursday for the launch of a new round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to tear down commercial barriers.

Last month’s attacks on the United States had cast a new shadow over an already slowing world economy, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) foreign and trade ministers said in a joint statement.

Given the increased likelihood of a global economic slowdown, ministers agreed on the critical importance and urgency of successfully launching the round at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference to re-energize the global trading system, said the statement issued after annual APEC ministerial talks.

The joint call from the 21-member APEC, which accounts for 44pc of the world’s total economic output, could lend powerful impetus to the launch of a new WTO round at a scheduled November 9-13 meeting.

However, the APEC statement dropped a reference to the venue, the Qatari capital Doha, and the planned dates seen in an earlier draft by AFP.

Security concerns about holding the meeting in the Middle East, in light of the US-led strikes on Afghanistan, have intensified and officials said Thursday that WTO members were discussing an alternative venue such as Singapore.

The priority was to ensure the meeting went ahead as scheduled next month, wherever it takes place, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said after APEC ministers ended their two-day talks.

Our task is to draft a document to get us started, he told reporters in Shanghai.

The planned WTO meeting is expected to revive a global liberalization initiative abandoned at Seattle in 1999.

Wide disagreements in areas such as agriculture threaten the launch of the new round, and the APEC ministers called for strong political will and flexibility to allow agreement to be reached on an agenda.

Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said flexibility was all-important to allow developing countries to opt out of contentious trade issues in a new WTO agreement if they wish.

The mood seems that flexibility is the order of the day but you must remember that APEC does not constitute the entire WTO membership. Europe is another big group that is outside APEC, she told reporters in Shanghai.

If Europe can subscribe to this flexibility and is willing to accept for instance the opt-out principle, then there will be more meetings of minds. so far it appears that Europe is listening to some of this debate.

The APEC ministers including US Secretary of State Colin Powell noted a worsening economic climate since Sept 11.

Since the end of last year, the slowdown in the United States, Japan and Europe has dampened the prospect of global and regional economy, with some members in the region affected considerably by the declining global demand.

The recent terrorist attacks in the United States risk undermining some industries as well as consumer confidence, said the joint statement.

The final version went further than the draft seen by AFP which said the attacks had simply “increased the downside risks” for the world and regional economic outlook.

The change appeared to have firmed up APEC’s fears about the post-attacks outlook, with the regional grouping’s top think-tank, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, warning that Pacific-Rim growth will barely top 1pc this year.—AFP