APEC looks to talks on global trade, North Korea

Asia-Pacific leaders said they were ready to make deeper cuts on farm subsidies to revive comatose global trade talks, as they began a summit yesterday overshadowed by diplomacy over North Korea.

In a statement issued on the first day of their two-day summit, leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum said "major players" in the group were ready to commit to deeper cuts in "trade-distorting farm support".

The statement, which gave no details, said the leaders vowed to cut industrial tariffs and remain "personally involved" to ensure there is enough flexibility for a breakthrough.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson welcomed the offer, telling reporters in New Delhi it provided hope that negotiations could resume next year.

The Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks collapsed in July amid bitter disputes over farm subsidies.

Reviving them depends on how much the United States cuts farm subsidies, how much the EU lowers tariffs on farm imports and export subsidies, and how much developing countries reduce barriers to industrial and service imports.

Christoph Wiesner, chargé d'affaires of the European Commission delegation in Vietnam, said the declaration was a "welcome reaffirmation that the global trade talks take precedence over other arrangements in the Asia-Pacific".

US President George W. Bush has been trying to drum up support for a free trade zone encompassing the 21 APEC members, but Washington was rebuffed in its bid to make the proposal a key part of this weekend's summit in Hanoi.

Supporters of the vast proposed Pacific Rim trade area see it as insurance against failure to resuscitate the Doha talks.

APEC accounts for nearly half of global trade and nearly 60 per cent of the world's GDP. It encompasses economies and political systems as different as global superpower of the United States and the tiny sultanate of Brunei.

Their agenda is diverse, from climate change and customs procedures to economic security threats and the role of women in development. Security issues like the war on terrorism and North Korea have grown in importance.

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said APEC leaders had largely agreed on a statement to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea to be issued today, officials said.

However, President George W. Bush failed to persuade South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to join a US plan to intercept North Korean ships carrying suspicious cargo, at their meeting on the summit sidelines.

Seoul said it supported the initiative's goals but feared it would lead to armed clashes at sea.

All the countries involved in six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear programmes are in Hanoi except for the North itself, and the five leaders spent most of the morning in meetings on what should be expected out of the next round.

No date has been set for those negotiations. The need for talks, stalled since last year, became all the more pressing after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on October 9, drawing UN sanctions. North Korea has since agreed to return but no date has been set.

The week-long APEC extravaganza, which has attracted 10,000 officials, businessmen and journalists to Vietnam's new $270 million convention centre, is also an opportunity for leaders to bond via Asian-style informal diplomacy.

Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talked baseball, and Abe gave Bush a photograph of their two grandfathers playing golf with Dwight Eisenhower.

At the conclusion of the summit today, the leaders will don Vietnamese ao dai tunics for the traditional salute to local fashion and to demonstrate solidarity.