Any moves to establish deadlines for liberalization, however, must take into consideration the big differences among APEC countries, especially in Asia, in cultural background and in stage of economic development. The participants should exert extra efforts to understand and respect each other's circumstances and pursue a suitably flexible agreement. In the same spirit, their consideration of such issues as human rights, labor standards, and deliberation protection should be separate and apart from their Deliberation on liberalizing trade and investment.
The APEC countries have benefited greatly from multilateral trade. In devising measures for liberalizing intraregional trade and investment, they should be careful to ensure consistency with the principles of the GATT and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The following considerations will be especially important:
Attaching any conditions to market access, however, could appear exclusionary and projectionist. In any case, it would be counter to the APEC spirit of "open regionalism."
Meanwhile, countries must not resolve disputes by resorting to discriminatory, bilateral agreements. Nor should take unilateral measures in response to disputes with counterparts. APEC participants should handle all disputes through the GATT/WTO or APEC dispute settlement mechanisms established, or to be established, for that purpose. A commitment to working through those mechanisms is crucial to maintaining multilateral free trade.
In considering the proper role for APEC, participants also need to keep a careful eye on free-trade areas within the APEC region. Those include the North America Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free-Trade Area (AFTA), and Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relationship Treaty Agreement (CER).
As for China, it is home to one-fifth of the world's population. It simply must have a voice in shaping a new trade and economic international order in the 21st century. Keidanren is in favor of welcoming China and other nonmembers of GATT/WTO into that agreement as soon as possible. In the meantime, APEC--whose participants include China and other economies that are not members of the GATT--has an extremely important role to play in conceiving the new international order.
The subjects of deregulating domestic markets and of streamlining the government sector have not received much emphasis in the APEC debate. That is unfortunate. Governments should not impose arbitrary rules on the private sector in regard to economic activity. Rather, they should deregulate markets to enhance the functioning of the market mechanism, which is the driving force in economic growth. APEC participants therefore should also discuss ways of coordinating their competitiveness policies.
Many Asian countries have inadequate industrial infrastructure and lack the means to provide their people with sufficient training and education. They require assistance from industrialized countries. Developing nations are especially eager for assistance in fostering their supporting industries that supply parts and materials to assembly manufacturers.
Any assistance that APEC's industrialized economies and newly industrializing economies can provide for nation building and human resources development in their developing-economy counterparts will improve the investment environment in the latter. It will contribute to market expansion and increased economic activities throughout the region.
Industrial and economic cooperation among APEC countries will be impossible, however, without the active participation of private-sector companies, who are the principal agents of economic activity. Governments therefore should reflect private-sector views fully in planning and carrying out cooperation projects in the region as well as in policy adjustments and coordination on the government level.