Backsliders must be kept in Apec fold

By Yoke Har Lee

American lamb producers are running to the US International Tariff Trade Commission for protection against New Zealand lamb exports.

Wind the reel back to just over two years ago, when New Zealand's spreadable butter came under scrutiny at the European Commission. Then the UK claimed New Zealand was violating its "butter" quota.

Our competitiors are likely to continue fast and furious along this track.

In New Zealand, free market reforms have left us truly open to the rest of the world. But there are no prizes for being first. New Zealand manufacturers struggle to get into fortress markets abroad while others find it a breeze to sell here.

Here is one irony: Gilbert Ullrich's aluminium products can't make it past the tariff barriers in some Asian countries. There, they copy his designs and resell them to New Zealand. His is an extreme example of unequal markets at work.

As New Zealand prepares for its biggest task this year of hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, the focus will doubtless be on free trade.But more urgent is the signal that political commitment to the Apec process is waning. Last year's host, Malaysia, now calls the forum a "toothless talk shop."

Malaysia's prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has said that Asian countries would be better off in a summit involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), plus Japan, China and South Korea.

This proposal isn't new. A decade ago he proposed an East Asian Economic Grouping which failed because of United States lobbying against Japan's participation. Any east Asian grouping involving Japan is going to spook the US.

Whether such a group can take shape depends on Japan and China having the courage or seeing merit in Asians sitting and working together, sans the Americans.

Will New Zealand be able to move the Apec process forward? There is a school of thought that says because the Malaysian meeting was so lame, New Zealand wouldn't find it hard to better last year's show.

For New Zealand, pure ambition to outshine shouldn't be the goal. This year's meeting must redirect Apec back to its reason for existence - that of an economic process. Apec seems to have turned increasingly political, and has lost credibility and momentum. New Zealand must help win back Apec backsliders.

The politics of Apec masks all the good work done. In a world dominated by suspicion and ill-feeling following Asia's economic catharsis, it is hard to keep focused on the big picture. But we must. However, in doing so New Zealand must find a middle path - neither a fast-track free-trade war cry nor one of slowing down what has been set in place.

New Zealand must put up an agenda acceptable to all Apec members for without consensus, Apec is, in Dr Mahathir's words, "toothless."