Asia-Pacific business leaders called on Tuesday for an Asia-Pacific free trade area to counter the proliferation of mini-pacts that are adding costs and complexity to doing business in the region.
The Apec Business Advisory Council (ABAC) also urged leaders of the 21 Pacific rim economies meeting in Hanoi to take stronger steps to curb trade in pirated goods and develop better plans to deal with pandemics such as bird flu.
At their annual meeting ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit this weekend, the business council noted that bilateral and regional trade pacts have blossomed in recent years, while a vast Apec-wide zone had yet to get off the drawing board.
"ABAC strongly urges leaders to develop an Apec initiative to promote convergence and consolidation among existing agreements, and those currently being negotiated," the group said in a report prepared for the leaders' summit. At least 50 free trade pacts have been agreed or are under discussion among countries represented at Apec, experts say.
Apec says its 21 members account for nearly half of global trade, 40 percent of the world's population and 56 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
Nevertheless, a top US trade official said the so-called Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific is "an interesting idea" that merits serious discussions in Hanoi.
And while it remains too early to say what will come out of this week's talks, the United States wants a strong Apec statement to "help reinvigorate the Doha round," Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia told Reuters in Washington.
Some trade experts believe Apec leaders could give a much-needed jolt to the nearly dead Doha round of world trade talks by promoting a regional free trade zone. That could also help businesses facing a growing web of smaller pacts in the region, often with conflicting rules.
"FTAs offer opportunities to liberalise trade, but there are concerns about spaghetti bowl issues of compatibility and the costs when you have lots of agreements to keep track of," Apec official Scott Smith told Reuters on the sidelines of the business leaders' meeting.
ABAC, comprising three top business people from each Apec economy, also urged leaders to renew efforts to revive the Doha round of global trade talks, which collapsed in July. The global trade round was a "once in a generation opportunity to make progress on trade liberalisation and must end in a positive outcome for the world trading community", the ABAC report said.
The business leaders said that while considerable progress had been made in intellectual property protection, "traffic in counterfeit products continues to grow faster than the trade in legitimate products".
The council saw a "critical need for more information about avian influenza", to help the Asia-Pacific business community "prepare continuity plans for the possibility of a future health pandemic".
Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet told the opening session of ABAC that Asia-Pacific economies had achieved above average growth rates despite an unstable oil market. "That shows the liberalisation of trade and investment is indeed stimulation for promoting development and bringing in prosperity for the entire Apec region in general, and each economy in particular."