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Futures and Commodity Market News |
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Sat Nov 21, 2009 |
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Breaking financial news 24/7 courtesy of TradingCharts.com Inc. / TFC Commodity Charts |
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Nov 08, 2009 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- [By Siti Rahil] Singapore, Nov. 8 Kyodo - Some members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum are pushing for a clear target date to achieve a free trade bloc in the Asia-Pacific region and want Japan to help steer the 21-member grouping towards the goal when Japan takes over the rotating chairmanship next year, senior officials said Sunday. "Next year Japan is going to do something on this...Everyone spoke of the need for Japan to take a more proactive role," an official from an Asian APEC member said after the first day of a two-day meeting of senior officials to prepare for the APEC summit next weekend. "So far they have been talking about it as a long-term project but some people want a clearer timeline, even Singapore," he said. The business community also appears to be enthusiastic about an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area. The APEC Business Advisory Council, set up by APEC leaders in 1995 to advise them on the concerns of the business community, "thinks the FTAAP is very important from the business point of view and they need certainty to confront the global challenges," the official said, referring to the Asia-Pacific free-trade concept. Michael Tay, executive director of the APEC secretariat in Singapore, told reporters that the idea of an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area was discussed at the meeting of senior officials. "We heard from some experts on the benefits and implications of an FTA of the Asia-Pacific region," he said. The senior officials' meeting addressed Singapore's proposal for a new economic growth model and regional economic integration. A draft APEC leaders' statement obtained earlier by Kyodo News states that APEC would make specific proposals for an Asia-Pacific free trade area by the end of next year, thus effectively assigning Japan the task of overseeing the process of developing a giant free trade area in a region that accounts for nearly half of the world's trade. An Asia-Pacific free trade area, however, could be at odds with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's proposal for an "East Asian community," which would be more confined to East Asia. Japan's chairmanship of APEC next year marks the target date for the more developed members of APEC to liberalize trade and investment. The draft text also speaks of the need to build an "Asia-Pacific community," which some APEC officials view as a specific reference to a proposal pushed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, although APEC has used the term in a general way in past statements. APEC members account for about 54 per cent of the world's economic output and 43 per cent of global trade. Launched in 1989, APEC currently comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. Source: Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1151 gmt 8 Nov 09 BBC Mon AS1 AsPol tbj |
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BBC Monitoring. Copyright BBC. Please read the End User Agreement. News provided by COMTEX |
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