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SENIOR
officials of Asian economies will draft a second report
pertaining to proposed free-trade agreements as part of
their preparations for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit in Peru late this
year.
Foreign
Undersecretary for International Trade Affairs Edsel
Custodio said economies should also prepare a separate
report on the developments in the commitments made in
the
Bogor goals that promote free trade and investments for
industrialized economies by 2010 and by 2020 for
developing economies.
“The
second report should be separate from the report on the
proposed free-trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific,
which is a long- term prospect.
We need
to determine if progress are being made in the
implementation of the Bogor goals, particularly on
capacity building and structural reforms,” said Custodio
in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
He
explained that developing countries would be unable to
cope with the demands of the FTA-AP if their particular
concerns on the gaps on technology and absence of
assistance to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are
not addressed.
“We need
to check through the second report whether
industrialized Apec economies have been fulfilling their
commitments provided in the Bogor goals,” said Custodio.
The
Bogor goals adopted by the Apec economies in 1994 seek
to implement specific measures to facilitate open trade
and investments in the
Pacific Rim. These include removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, increase in
foreign direct investments into developing economies,
promotion of regional trade agreements and capacity
building for developing Apec member-countries.
Custodio
also stressed that the capacity-building aspect
contained in the Bogor goals is very crucial to the
developing economies like the Philippines, because it
focuses on economic and technical support for the SMEs,
which comprise more than 95 percent of the Philippine
business.
The Apec
economic and technical cooperation (Ecotech) provided in
the 1994 Bogor goals seeks to reduce technological gaps
between the members and foster sustainable development
and achieve common prosperity.
The
activities in realizing goals under Ecotech include
fostering of human resources and SMEs, as well as
improvements in systems supporting trade and investment
flows.
The Apec
Bogor goals also include commitments of member-economies
to push for Doha negotiations in the World Trade
Organization as members represent nearly half of the
world’s trade flows and more than 60 percent of the
global gross domestic products. |
