(10 Sep 1999) English/Nat

Ministers from the 21- economy Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum say the annual summit, due to come to a head on Sunday and Monday in New Zealand, will influence the agenda on the next round of world trade talks.

Trade ministers in June had agreed to support a complete industrial round of global trade talks, dubbed the "millennium round", when the World Trade Organisation (W-T-O) meets in Seattle on November 30th.

Issues covered by the APEC summit in Auckland is expected to be overshadowed by China's bid to join the W-T-O after Washington agreed to restart accession negotiations on Thursday.

APTN looks back at the way the W-T-O have become the international body it is today, which sets the ground rules for international commerce and trade policy.

The W-T-O currently holds a hundred and thirty four (134) members who meet regularly here, in Switzerland's capital of Geneva.

The highest authority is the ministerial conference which meets at least once every two years and where decisions are normally taken by consensus.

In theory, new members enjoy the privileges of security that the trading rules provide, working for developing countries in the face of competition from the developed economic powers.

In return, member countries have to commit to liberalise, or open their markets and to abide by the rules.

However, many developing countries view the reality of global trade to be protectionist against them, with industrial nations placing high tariff barriers on imports.

It's the main reason why members of APEC, who account for 46 percent of global trade with a combined domestic product of over 16 (tr) trillion U-S dollars, have agreed that the upcoming Seattle talks should include a controversial debate on reducing tariffs in the industrial sector.

Their theory is that a Pacific Rim bloc speaking with one voice in W-T-O negotiations would be a powerful
counterbalance to the 15-nation European Union.

The ministers also plan to urge their heads of state to set a three-year timetable for the so-called "millennium round" negotiations, with new deals governing trade in agriculture, industrial products and services such as banking.

The goal of the trade pact will be to free up new avenues for international commerce that can improve all economies.

Although analysts agree the W-T-O was established to help lesser developed countries trade in the global economy, many countries still regard trade liberalisation with suspicion.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Big countries do count more than small countries in any organisation and it's very clear that after the Uruguay round, the developing countries didn't get as much on agriculture from the E-U or in textiles from the U-S, as they really should've got and something needs to be done about that. And that's something I think which will come out at the beginning of the next W-T-O ministerial in Seattle at the end of this year where the developing countries will be saying, "you guys want to go on with more liberalisation, but you haven't actually delivered to us."
SUPER CAPTION: Jim Rollo, W-T-O expert, University of Sussex

The principles running throughout W-T-O agreements include non-discrimination, freer trade, predictable policies, encouraging competition and extra provisions for less developed countries.

It was born in 1995 to succeed the General Agreement on tariffs and Trade (GATT) which had only dealt with trade in goods and didn't include trade in services and intellectual property.

UPSOUND: (English)
"I know declare the 1996 ministerial conference of the W-T-O, closed."

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