Regional News
A FURTHER step toward a US-backed free-trade bloc handed Asia-Pacific leaders a rare tangible achievement from their annual summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, over the weekend.
Asia’s increasingly vital role as a driver of global growth has added urgency to the campaign to remove barriers and bottlenecks that slow trade and business—the original mission of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum, whose 21 members join economies huge and tiny, rich and poor.
President Barack Obama, flanked by leaders of eight other nations involved in negotiations on setting up the trading bloc, said he was optimistic the trade pact dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could draft a legal framework by next year.
“It is an ambitious goal, but we are optimistic that we can get it done,” he said on the Apec summit’s sidelines.
The so-called TPP is billed as a building block for eventually forging a free-trade zone that encompasses all of Asia and the Pacific. It now includes only four smaller economies—Chile, New Zealand, Brunei and Singapore—but the US, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Peru are negotiating to join, and Japan said it hopes to as well.
The plan could help balance influence between the US and an ascendant China, a concern of many in the region.
China has appeared unenthusiastic about the Pacific trade pact, describing the plan as “overly ambitious.” Its reluctance to endorse the proposal likely reflects wariness about being drawn into what has become a US-led initiative that encroaches on its own sphere of influence in Asia.
The Philippines, which is trying to qualify in the US-led free-trade treaty, is on track in its commitments to initiate economic reforms to meet the “high-standard” qualifications of the trade deal, Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said.
“The Philippines is very interested to be part of the TPP because this is the only way to get a free-trade deal with these countries, particularly the United States,” Domingo said during a forum with the BusinessMirror, Philippines Graphic and dwIZ last week.
The Philippines needs to speed up corrective measures such as the full and effective implementation of intellectual property rights (IPR), a highly sensitive issue for the US, as well as economic reforms before it can qualify in the TPP.
Alex Feldman, president of the US-Asean Business Council, said the group is supportive of TPP as it could become a building block for a free-trade area of the Asia-Pacific region.
“It’s vital that, as negotiations continue, that the US and other negotiating partners continue their support for the original framework of the TPP, which sets out to be a comprehensive, high-standards agreement which supports IPR and the continued elimination of barriers to investment throughout the Asia Pacific,” Feldman said in a statement issued at the sidelines of the Apec Leaders Meeting in Hawaii.
The TPP seeks to create a free-trade zone covering 40-percent of the global trade. Feldman called it a “unique agreement,” which can benefit every state in the US by expanding exports to four key Asean partners. Asean is currently the fourth-largest export market for the United States, supporting over 425,000 American jobs.
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By: Estrella Torres, AP
Source: Business Mirror, Nov. 13, 2011
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