Brandishing the new-found power that comes from having more than 50 percent of the world’s economic output, President Clinton and Asian-Pacific leaders ganged up Saturday on Europe to pressure it to conclude international trade talks by Dec. 15.
The threat implicit in a joint statement issued by 14 leaders during an informal summit conference is that the U.S. and its Pacific Rim trading partners would seek greater cooperation in reducing trade and investment barriers should world trade talks fail by the deadline set by Congress.
“The message to Europe is we want this to be a united but open community, and we want Europe to work with us to get a good GATT agreement by the end of the year,” said Clinton with the other leaders nodding in agreement at the conclusion of their historic first-ever meeting of Pacific Rim nations.
“We don’t want an exclusive trading bloc. We want them to join us in a new world trading system,” Clinton said.
The summit’s strong statement, which called for the success of the so-called Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), raises the stakes for several of the Asian leaders in attendance. Both Japan and South Korea will have to open small cracks in their rice markets to reach a successful accord.
While neither nation offered concessions during last week’s talks on the politically explosive issue, they have privately signaled a willingness to bend as part of an international trade agreement.
“We are determined the Asia-Pacific region will lead the way in taking concrete steps to produce the strongest possible outcome in Geneva,” where the GATT talks are being held, said the “economic vision statement” agreed upon by the leaders attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
The statement was issued by leaders brought together for an informal session by Clinton, who chafes at the formalities traditional at summit meetings.
As aides waited nervously outside, casually dressed presidents, and prime ministers and one sultan sat on chairs arranged in a semicircle in a huge cedar longhouse, a copy of the ancient communal dwellings of the Northwest’s Native Americans. Only translators and notetakers joined them.
The leaders emerged with the pre-prepared “vision statement,” a ’90s version of the communiques that usually conclude summit meetings.
The Asian leaders’ reluctance to strengthen APEC’s regional coordinating role won the day, but Clinton’s enthusiasm for bringing together the heads of Asian-Pacific countries paid off by signaling both to them and to America’s traditional allies in Europe that the U.S. intends to do business with the world’s fastest-growing economies.
The meeting clearly raises the prospect that the U.S. would seek a stronger role for APEC in the future if the Europeans’ reluctance to compromise on agriculture causes the GATT talks to break down.
In a sign that the fledgling APEC organization could assume greater significance, the leaders agreed to meet again next year in Indonesia, a plum for its President Suharto, who is now in his 5th six-year term. Indonesia faces a February deadline for the cutoff of trade privileges by the U.S. because of its labor rights violations.
Among the lesser issues agreed upon at this fourth APEC meeting-but the first attended by heads of governments-was to have finance ministers meet to consult on broad economic issues. They also approved Clinton initiatives calling for a forum of business leaders from the region and an education exchange program.
Earlier in the week, finance and trade ministers from the APEC nations agreed to minor reductions in tariffs to spur the GATT talks. They also established a trade and investment committee to promote growth around the Pacific Rim and approved this year’s admission of three new nations-Mexico and Papua New Guinea- and Chile next year.
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In addition to those newcomers, current members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
Standing on an island in Puget Sound eight miles from Seattle, Clinton said, “The Asian-Pacific region will play an increasingly vital role for our nation and the world.” He said they share economic priorities, even if they disagree on how to achieve them, and are helping to create “a genuine community” of the nations that surround the Pacific.
Still, no progress was made last week on the pressing business the U.S. has with several of the largest nations in attendance. Winning concessions from China on human rights, Japan on trade, or the entire region’s concern about the possible proliferation of nuclear weapons in North Korea were no nearer resolution at the end of the meeting.
If anything, Clinton may have raised the stakes in upcoming trade negotiations with Japan.
“By next June or July, certainly by a year from now, I believe that the responsibilities of the United States and Japan to do more to promote global economic growth will have been in large measure advanced, and I think you will see that we’ve done some of the things that we should,” Clinton said.
Clinton is pressing Japan to cut taxes to spur its moribund economy and promote imports. The two sides also face a mid-February deadline when Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa again visits the U.S. for achieving a breakthrough on stalled talks aimed at reducing Japan’s huge trade surplus with the U.S.
On its side, Japan is demanding that the U.S. reduce its huge budget deficit and increase domestic competitiveness, while resisting U.S. demands for numerical targets to measure progress in reducing the trade imbalance between the two countries.
Advised to dress casually for their daylong outing on Blake Island, a park devoted to preserving the culture of the Northwest coastal Indians, the leaders’ pinstripes and tailored suits gave way to sportswear, symbolic of the casual neighborliness Clinton hoped to foster.
With no signs that their differences over human rights from Friday carried into Saturday, there was Clinton, waving from the ferry that carried them to the island, standing with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who only recently traded in his high-collar Mao suit for Western attire and appeared uncomfortable tugging at the collar of his open-necked shirt.
Clinton wore a plaid shirt, sweater, casual slacks, brown leather bomber jacket and hiking boots. But he was no match for Hosokawa, who jauntily tossed a tan scarf over his shoulder. The Sultan of Brunei, reportedly the world’s richest man, seemed, well, rich in all-black ensemble.
Despite the informality of the talks, Jiang came prepared with a seven-page speech, according to the Associated Press. He asserted that reforms in China have produced “political stability, social tranquility and accelerated economic growth.”
“What is also irreversible,” Jiang said, “is that China will enjoy greater economic growth and social progress and that our democracy and legal system will be further strengthened.”
Emphasizing a willingness to not let concern over China’s human rights record interfere with other interests, Clinton dismissed a question about the subject Saturday: “Today, we focused on what we could do together economically, and I think that’s what I ought to respond to today.”