Silken threads for the power dressers

By AUDREY YOUNG in Bangkok

The beauty of the Apec leaders lining up for the annual leaders' photograph, all dressed up in their $3730 silk jackets, is that it is a leveller.

It presents an image of homogeneity and harmony that disguises the power plays going on behind closed doors.

But power speaks, and the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum that ended in Thailand yesterday was George W. Bush.

Everybody wanted a little bit of the glad-handing Texan and he had a little to give everyone, whether in a formal bilateral meeting with China or South Korea, a "pull-aside" with New Zealand or a little face-time sitting next to him at one of the meetings or meals.

Even hot-headed Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad got a "pull-aside" with Mr Bush, to be told, said a White House spokesman, that his comments on Jews ruling the world by proxy were "wrong and divisive".

Prime Minister Helen Clark's 12-minute exchange with Mr Bush was important for New Zealand, not just to talk about a free-trade agreement but to gauge at a personal level whether his upbeat comments about such a deal ("the people of New Zealand shouldn't read anything into it other than we haven't gotten started") were an unprepared throw-away line in an interview or a cause for cautious optimism for our future prospects.

Helen Clark's view is clearly the latter. Her conversation with him was consistent with his earlier comments, she reported. No door has been shut.

His comments are important not just because they contrast markedly with the tone of the carefully prepared speech notes (vetted by the State Department) of ambassador Charles Swindells last week, which unmistakably cautioned against optimism, but because a leader's view can make all the difference. They can slow things or speed things.

That was in evidence in Bangkok when Helen Clark was genuinely surprised at the swift decision of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to advance a free-trade deal with New Zealand for signing by next year's Apec.

Before her meeting with him, there was a view in the New Zealand camp that Thai trade officials had tired and the matter might be left to drag on.

The deal is likely to favour New Zealand: although the trade balance favours Thailand, the hefty tariffs to come down are those set by the Thais on New Zealand dairy exports. It also means New Zealand can feel less like an orphan as bilateral trade deals proliferate all around.

It goes like this: Thailand has concluded a deal with Australia, China and India; the US is talking to Australia and agreed on Sunday to start free-trade talks with Thailand next year; Singapore is also on the US favoured list, as is Chile; New Zealand has a deal with Singapore and is negotiating a three-way deal with Singapore and Chile.

Helen Clark arrives home this morning with one tangible prize and more than satisfied with the commitment of Apec leaders to rescue the World Trade Organisation's Doha Development Round.

The leaders also agreed Apec countries should get together more at the World Trade Organisation. That has the makings of a powerful influence.

Yesterday's leaders' retreat focused more on security issues and, in that respect, it was America's Apec. Despite some misgivings about how far the US wants to take Apec from its trade focus, the leaders adopted a set of new counter-terrorism goals.

Security issues are not new. They have been on the Apec agenda for the past two meetings, with specific measures to upgrade security, for example, in containerisation and aviation.

Both summits were held in the shadow of the September 11 attacks and the Bali bombings.

The difference this year is that the predominance of security issues was not a response to an event but a pitch to make them as integral a part of Apec as its trade mandate.

The authority flexed by the US in Bangkok is not unlike that of Australia in Auckland at the Pacific Islands Forum, where it arrived with plans of how other countries could better run themselves.

Despite protestations, Australia got its way. And the US has got its way. Power talks.

Unofficial Apec facts

* When Asian-Pacific leaders smiled for the cameras in specially tailored Thai silk jackets they were decked out well beyond the means of most people they represent. Weavers and tailors in Thailand handcrafted the jackets, valued at about 90,000 baht ($3730) each. Most Thais could scarcely buy one even if they worked for an entire year and saved every baht. The nation's average annual income is $3323.

* A typical Vietnamese, who earns the equivalent of $718 a year, would have to work more than half a decade to get one of the jackets, which featured animal or floral patterns, mostly on burgundy-coloured fabric made from fine silk threads.

* Hotel kitchen staff working on food preparation for Apec leaders had to pass rectal swab tests in extensive health checks before the summit.

* The Apec media centre offered free foot, shoulder and neck massages for accredited reporters and $40,000 free medical insurance.

* Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the first batch of leaders' jackets remade because he thought they "looked like air stewards".

* Helen Clark's husband, Professor Peter Davis, was the only spouse of the three women leaders to join the other leaders' wives for a tour of temples and a fashion show on Monday. The husband of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri did not attend Apec owing to a family bereavement, and the husband of Philippines leader Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who did attend, was indisposed.

* A riverbank slum was draped with a giant poster of the Royal Palace to conceal it from leaders watching the royal barge procession on Monday night.

* Among the numbers played by the Thai naval orchestra at the leaders' formal dinner was Tie Me Kangaroo Down, and Me He Manu Rere.