FOCUS on APEC
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Focus-on-APEC #15, part 1 of 3
FOCUS-on-APEC
A regular bulletin produced by Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
Bangkok, Thailand
Number 15 June 1997
This really is the final issue of Focus-on-APEC. The next bulletin
will be renamed Focus-on-Trade, covering a wider range of issues.
FOCUS was designated the NGO Information/Monitoring Center on APEC
(Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum) by the participants of the
1995 NGO Forum on APEC in Kyoto, Japan. It was out of this
commitment that FOCUS-on-APEC was created. FOCUS-on-APEC carries
APEC-related news, the latest items of interest and concern, and
informed and critical analysis from a progressive perspective — with
a broad geographical concentration on East Asia and the Western and
South Pacific.
FOCUS-on-APEC is where you can learn about other people’s APEC-related
work and they can learn about yours. Please send us your APEC-related
information (by e-mail, fax or snail-mail!) — including news items,
research papers, opinion pieces and information on grassroots
activities happening in your respective country. Your contributions
will be incorporated into the bulletins.
We welcome your comments and suggestions!
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————– IN THIS ISSUE
APEC Environment Ministers Meeting
APEC environment meeting makes little progress
Act on pollution, APEC urged: Group’s credibility called on the line
By Paul Knox , The Globe and Mail
Full text of Ministers’ Statement
APEC Trade Ministers Meeting
Trade: 18 Human Rights: 0
by Allison Lampert
Full text of Ministers’ Statement
APEC Finance Ministers meeting
Full text of Ministers’ Statement
Canadian organising committee
Upcoming events
Electronic bulletins on trade and APEC
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————– IN THE NEXT ISSUE – FOCUS ON TRADE
Walden Bello reports on the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment
The Shrimp Turtle Debate: a clash of environmental politics
Assessing APEC: what is APEC doing and does it matter?
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————— ENVIRONMENT
APEC environment meeting makes little progress
TORONTO, June 11 (Reuter) – Environment ministers from the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies closed a three-day
meeting on Wednesday, having failed to produce any concrete or
enforceable measures to address the environmental concerns plaguing
its 18 members.
Canada’s Ambassador for the Environment John Fraser, told the final
news conference that simply holding the gathering was an
accomplishment, given APEC’s origin as a group focused on promoting
trade between Asia-Pacific nations.
“I have to be encouraged,” said Fraser who chaired the meeting. “Do
I think that there are magic answers? No, there are no magic answers
but this goes a long way to making it obvious that you can start off
talking about trade, but if you’re talking about meaningful trade,
real health to your people, you can’t exclude the concepts of
sustainable development.”
It was the third meeting of the environmental arm of APEC since the
group’s formation in 1989. Despite preparations for all delegates to
address the news conference, representatives from just four APEC
member economies — Canada, the United States, Chile and Japan —
attended.
Fraser said the delegates were pressed for time.
“It’s late this afternoon, they’ve come a long long way, and they
have to catch planes to go elsewhere,” he said.
The environment ministers will present their recommendations for
sustainable cities, cleaner production and sustainability of the
marine environment to the wider APEC summit to be held November in
Vancouver.
Act on pollution, APEC urged: Group’s credibility called on the line
June 10, 1997 Paul Knox, The Globe and Mail
Pacific Rim environment ministers were told bluntly yesterday to stop
avoiding serious ecological problems and turn their Toronto meeting
into more than a chance for environmental businesses to network.
Delegates from the United States and New Zealand urged their
counterparts in the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to
broaden their agenda to include global warming.
U.S. delegate Eileen Claussen said the credibility of eight-year-old
APEC, a trade-liberalization forum that includes 18 countries and
territories, is on the line.
“Many people have real doubts about whether APEC can evolve into a
credible force for environmental protection,” she told the meeting.
“It is true that we certainly have not become one yet.”
Echoing her concern, New Zealand Environment Minister Simon Upton
noted that the United States and China, which together with European
countries emit the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gases, were both at
the table.
“Our citizens are going to expect us to focus on common issues that
affect us all,” he said. “. . . If we can’t talk about these issues at
APEC, where can we talk about them?”
Their comments seemed likely to fuel controversy in Canada over APEC,
whose summit meeting of heads of government will be held in Vancouver
in November. The environment meeting is one of several preliminary
gatherings.
APEC was born as a trade-liberalization group, and unabashedly
promotes itself as a forum designed to make it easier to do business
in the Pacific Region. “APEC has been business-driven from the start,”
a pamphlet produced by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department notes.
Delegates are said to represent “economies,” not “countries.” This is
primarily so that China and Taiwan — both members — can bring
themselves to sit at the same table. But it nourishes the suspicion
that APEC will undermine national sovereignty.
“The environment ministers have been conscripted to an agenda that is
anti-environment,” said Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of
Canadians and one of about 30 people who staged a demonstration
yesterday in front of the hotel where the talks were held.
The forum also is criticized because it goes to some lengths to
provide access to businesses while sharply restricting that of
environmental and human-rights activists. Partly to counter such
criticism, a parallel “youth forum” has been organized this year.
While Canada was instrumental in getting environmental issues on
APEC’s agenda, it has abandoned efforts to include discussion of human
rights and democracy. Most members are electoral democracies, but APEC
includes two famously repressive regimes, China and Indonesia.
In briefings with reporters, Canadian officials stressed the potential
benefits for Canada of the meeting’s three themes: the urban
environment, marine ecosystems and clean industrial processes.
A senior Canadian official said meteorologists can trace toxic
chemicals that show up in the Arctic region back to their countries of
origin in Asia.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that
Ottawa hopes to drum up sales for Canadian businesses that provide
environmental technology or services. “There’s a jobs element for
Canada in this as well.”
If the ministers endorse a draft program of action prepared for the
Toronto meeting, they will agree to give antipollution technology
special emphasis in talks on dropping tariffs and other trade
barriers.
The draft is heavy on exchanges of information and light on formal
commitments. The closest it gets to emissions control is a U.S.
proposal to hold workshops on cutting lead pollution in motor-vehicle
exhaust.
Yet almost no progress has been made on cutting carbon emissions from
autos and industry, which produce the so-called greenhouse gases
believed to contribute to global warming.
In two weeks, when world leaders gather at the United Nations for a
special General Assembly session, they will be forced to acknowledge
that the emissions-cutting promise they made at Rio de Janeiro in 1992
has not been kept.
“The APEC economies contribute almost half of global carbon-dioxide
emissions,” said Ms. Claussen, who is the U.S. assistant secretary of
state for international environmental affairs. “The problem cannot be
solved without us.”
In an interview, Environment Minister Sergio Marchi said the ministers
would discuss climate change informally over dinner and lunch in
Toronto. “The road to and from Rio also goes through APEC,” he said.
He declined to say whether he expected to be Environment Minister when
the meeting wraps up tomorrow. That is the day Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien plans to announce a cabinet lineup for his second mandate.
Hour Magazine May 15-21, 1997
APEC Environment Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Development Joint
Statement Toronto, Canada, June 9 – 11, 1997
“Across borders we have managed to build a common vision on
sustainable development. The time for action is now. We want to help
you build our future.”
We, the Ministers responsible for Environment and Sustainable
Development from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region
commit to sustainable development as a fundamental objective to
achieve human prosperity and a healthy environment.
Specifically, we: take up ….. APEC Leaders’ call for a work program
for sustainable development in APEC that includes the themes of the
sustainability of the marine environment, cleaner production, and
sustainable cities; highlight …. our determination to make cities
in the region more sustainable, and commend our Plan of Action to
Leaders; challenge …. all orders of government, the private sector,
local communities, and individuals to join with us in transforming