More from APEC: EU not backing down

November 16, 2005

The deadlock held in place by the EU continues after the finish of a 2 day meeting at today. The EU stated that it will not budge on deliberalizing its tariffs on imported agricultural goods unless others provide more on industrial goods and services. The EU has received criticism for not matching an offer by the US widely considered to be generous. EU does not plan to make a further offer on agricultural issues before the next WTO ministerial meeting in December 13-18. The timetable for the current round of WTO talks requires an outline agreement in place for the December meeting.

Rob Portman, the US Trade Representative, was not able to nail down some better detailed trade proposals.

"The Doha Development Agenda negotiations are in dire straits," Kim Hyun-chong, South Korean trade minister said. He also believed that APEC members, specifically China and Japan, as well as the US, did not have "specific numbers" to offer as concessions.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took the meetings as an opportunity to get APEC members to do more on terrorism. "APEC nations must deepen our cooperation in the global fight against terrorism,' Rice said. "In the past year we have seen that the threat of global terrorism is still very real, with vicious new attacks in Indonesia and Russia and the Philippines,"

APEC ministers agreed that by the end of 2006 that all major airports will be safe from attacks by shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles.