The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has shown again its power as the primary economic forum in the Pacific Rim, as 21 top leaders from its member economies voiced strong support for the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and free trade.

In the declaration issued at the end of their annual meeting, the APEC leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advance development through trade and investment liberalization, enhance human security to underpin growth and promote good governance and a knowledge-based society.

The declaration, titled "One Community, Our Future," was also the main theme of this year's APEC meetings.

As top leaders of economies that account for more than a third of the world's population and nearly 60 percent of the world grossdomestic product (GDP), they sent a strong message about APEC's role in pushing forward world trade and economy.

APEC MEMBERS COMMITTED TO WORLD TRADE TALKS

"The meeting is a big success not only for Chile, but also for all APEC members," Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, whose country is the first South American nation to host APEC events, told a press conference.

Reviewing the consensus reached at the meeting on a wide variety of issues, Lagos highlighted the APEC leaders' strong support for the WTO Doha negotiations and their determination to advance prosperity and sustainable growth in the region.

They pledged to "work with a renewed sense of urgency to achieve a balanced overall outcome that will meet the high levels of ambition set for those negotiations," said the declaration.

During an annual dialogue with APEC leaders, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the business part of the forum, also toldthe top policy makers that they believe a rapid and successful conclusion to the Doha negotiations is the top priority for the regional economy.

"There is no other issue with such overarching importance to business, across the APEC region or globally, and we urged leadersto creatively and vigorously seek an early conclusion of the round," said the ABAC Chair Hernan Somerville.

The Doha negotiations collapsed last year due to deep differences between the developed and developing members on marketaccess, agriculture subsidies and tariff structures. But the talksresumed in July, and the push by APEC leaders to keep the momentumgoing is seen as important because the region represents nearly half of the world trade.

The APEC leaders agreed to launch a new initiative for expandedtrade in the organization to complement the achievement of free and open trade in the region.

"An overarching dimension of the initiative is capacity building so that all economies can implement and benefit from their work on trade liberalization and facilitation."

The leaders approved sets of counter-terrorism measures to improve commercial flight safety and to protect shipping and food stocks.

The declaration also vowed to shore up anti-corruption fight and promote structural reform.

APEC BACK ON TRACK AS ECONOMIC FORUM

Set up in 1989 to boost economic growth, cooperation, trade andinvestment in the Asian Pacific region, APEC is a trade-oriented economic club, although security issues have loomed large in the past two years.

US President George W. Bush said he would continue to urge APECmembers to keep up their anti-terror efforts during his trip to Chile, the first international travel since he won the second presidential term early this month.

"I am meeting with many allies and friends to strengthen our ties across the Pacific and discuss practical ways we can enhance prosperity, advance liberty, and improve our shared security," Bush said, speaking in his weekly radio address on Saturday.

While the United States put emphasis on security, most countries came down on the trade side, although they agreed that the issues are inter-linked.

"We reaffirmed our determination to advance the prosperity and sustainable growth of our economies and the complementary mission of ensuring the security of our people", the leaders' declaration said.

Unlike the past two years when anti-terrorism overshadowed trade at the leaders' meeting, traditional major trade issues, such as the WTO negotiations, free trade agreements/regional tradearrangements and sustainable and equitable growth, were the dominant issues for the regional event.

The leaders also paid considerable attention to a wide variety of other topics, including fight against corruption, structural reform and high oil prices.

When addressing the security issue, the declaration stressed the security of human beings, calling for new efforts to fight AIDS and curb infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, bird flu and tuberculosis.

DIFFERENT VOICES OUTSIDE APEC

As a traditional main topic of APEC, the concept of globalization gained support from most APEC members, which believethat APEC's core "Bogor Goals" on open trade and investment and its strong support for the WTO multilateral trading system will bring huge economic benefits to its members.

While APEC economic leaders, economists, policy makers and other business leaders were gathering to talk about the challengesof global trade and the prospects of multilateral trade negotiations, not everybody was happy about their topics.

Throughout Friday, when APEC leaders flew into Chile, thousandsof anti-Bush and anti-globalization protesters took to the streetsof downtown Santiago, at times clashing with police who used tear gas and water cannons to control the crowd.

Organizers said 40,000 protesters participated in a government-approved march on Friday, but police put the number at 25,000. There were also several more radical and unauthorized rallies.

While some protesters said they oppose globalization, which they said would further widen the gap between the rich and poor, much of the anger was directed at Bush and the US-led war in Iraq.

Another opposition voice was heard from indigenous peoples fromsome APEC members, especially those from Chile and the Philippines.

In a declaration addressed to the APEC leaders' meeting, indigenous peoples in the region expressed their fundamental concerns over trade globalization and finance liberalization.

"We have suffered from the negative impacts of the development of free trade and the accelerated economic cooperation in the context of the so-called globalization in various forms," they declared.

They also argued that as APEC would forge agreements on tourism,serious implications to the heritage, integrity and dignity of indigenous peoples would be unprecedented.

In face of those protests, the Chilean government launched an unprecedented massive security operation with the involvement of more than 5,000 police officers and troops.

Source: Xinhua