APEC Summits Will Go on Despite Detractors
Saturday November 19, 5:25 pm ET
By Kelly Olsen, AP Business Writer
APEC Meetings Will Go on Despite Claims That Forum Is Ineffectual, Favors Trade Over the Poor
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) -- What's it all about, APEC?
That's the question each time leaders from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation hold their annual summit.
Wags have mocked the summit as "four adjectives in search of a noun" or "aging politicians enjoying cocktails." Other critics call APEC ineffectual, or say its emphasis on pushing free trade comes at the expense of developing nations and the poor.
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Officials of the 21-member forum insist the meeting is more than just a talk shop.
Still, this year's gathering in Busan was typical: It focused on how to respond to trouble within the World Trade Organization -- an issue that lies outside the confines of APEC and that the APEC summit covered five years ago.
After six days of preparatory meetings by senior officials, ministers, and leaders including President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, the summit on Saturday called for a breakthrough on WTO global trade talks.
And no one is certain that anyone outside APEC will listen -- even thought the summit has the collective clout of seven of the world's largest economies and almost half the world's trade.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, for one, wasn't worried APEC might be setting itself up for embarrassment if the forum is unable to push a successful conclusion to the WTO talks.
"APEC will meet again next year whether they succeed or fail," he said.
Critics have long had a field day with the consensus-driven APEC, which was founded in 1989 to "further enhance economic growth and prosperity for the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community." There originally were 12 members.
APEC's profile rose in 1993 when President Clinton invited leaders to a summit in the United States, the first of the now-annual gatherings.
The following year APEC launched its signature agenda: to realize free trade among its developed members by 2010 and all its members by 2020.
There's no doubt APEC has muscle. Yet it operates on the principle of unanimous agreement, with all decisions and statements being ultimately nonbinding.
That means opposition by a single member -- the South Pacific island of Papua New Guinea, for example -- can block agreement, and what is agreed on is ultimately unenforceable.
Still, APEC has broadened its scope in recent years, taking up issues such as fighting corruption and terrorism and coordinating regional efforts to combat bird flu. Defenders argue that APEC's uniqueness lies in its role as a forum for dialogue between government and business.
"We're very pleased to be here in APEC," Mexican President Vicente Fox told executives attending the forum's annual CEO Summit. "Very pleased because we can learn here about success stories, about success economies."
It also provides a place for APEC leaders to speak with each other individually, such as this year's talks between Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin and Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Sideline meetings are such are a mainstay of APEC summits that some fret they overshadow the larger agenda.
"I worry sometimes that the developed countries treat this as a bilateral meeting event," said Roberto R. Romulo, a former Philippine foreign secretary.
One thing APEC leaders wholeheartedly agreed on in Busan: They'll gather again next year, in Hanoi, Vietnam.
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