Free Trade Good For Brunei: PECC Chairman
By Hadi DP Mahmud

Hanoi - The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) has warned that a renewed trend of protectionism looms, a possibility that does not bode well for countries like Brunei that need to diversify economic activity.

"An economic slowdown, a stubbornly high current account deficit, the suspension of Doha negotiations, and political factors could also result in renewed protectionism, with major effects on the economies of the region," PECC international chairman Charles E Morrison said in a press conference yesterday.

However, he said there would be no tremendous increase in protectionism in the Asean region, particularly Brunei. "Brunei has an economy that is focused on energy, so right now it is doing very well," he said.

"But it needs to diversify its economy so having free trade would be very good for Brunei," he said in an exclusive interview with The Brunei Times.

Yuen Pau Woo, coordinator of the PECC's State of the Region Report, said that the economic slowdown had been widely anticipated and that overall growth in the region, especially East Asia, however, would remain healthy.

Yuan, who is also president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said the report's prediction of regional economic developments were based on a survey of 370 regional opinion leaders.

Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, said that he would call for a resumption of the so-called Doha round of negotiations.

The Doha round, which aims to reduce subsidies and other trade barriers, has been deadlocked by disputes between rich and poor nations and among the wealthy.

Lamy said he would leave for the WTO headquarters in Geneva to transmit the calls from the Apec's foreign and trade ministers for fresh efforts to revive the trade talks.

They "expressed a sense of urgency and joined in calling for a rapid restart of the negotiating engines in Geneva", he said.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, for example, said that reviving the Doha round of negotiations, which broke down in July, was the main focus of the Apec meeting here.

"No single country, no single group of countries, will be able to unilaterally put the Doha round back on track," she said.

"The only thing that will get the Doha round back on track is if all of the key players - and these are developed and developing countries alike - are willing to stretch beyond where they were in July," she said.

She said the EU and the US in particular needed to address and do more in reducing trade distorting subsidies in the agriculture sector.

Yuen said that opinion leaders expressed concern about the viability of Apec. Only 42 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement ' Apec is as important today as it was in 1989", he said.

Respondents from North American economies were the most sceptical, with only 25 per cent agreeing with the statement. Across the region, the majority of respondents identified "weak commitment from member economies" and "lack of focus" as key challenges facing the regional forum.

The PECC, at its 15th general meeting in Brunei in 2003, called for a renewed commitment to the Asia Pacific approach to regional integration. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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