Ministers responsible for trade from 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) will focus on reviewing the Doha Round, regional and bilateral free trade agreements and building up a Hanoi action plan to realize Bogor goals on free trade and investment, a local minister said in Hanoi Monday.

"The APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade slated for June 1-2 in Ho Chi Minh City will review recent progresses of Doha negotiations, though not fundamental progresses, and reinforce the determination of the WTO members in concluding the negotiation by the end of this year as targeted," Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen said at a press conference.

Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Pascal Lamy will attend the two-day meeting, giving a speech about the negotiation's progress, Tuyen said, noting that all trade ministers from APEC members support the late 2006 target.

He said as the Doha round has gone slowly, more and more countries are engaging in regional and bilateral free trade agreements, which assists the Doha process on the one hand, and makes markets fragmented and create new discriminations.

The meeting will touch upon issues regarding the formation of regional and bilateral free trade agreements, and put forth suggestions about principles of establishing the agreements so that they are in line with WTO rules as well as open to admit new members, he said.

The meeting will also build up the Hanoi action plan to realize Bogor goals on free trade and investment by 2010 for developed APEC members, and by 2020 for developing ones. On the sidelines of the two-day event, a business symposium on trade and investment is slated for between May 31 and June 1 in the southern city with expected participation of hundreds of enterprises from APEC members and APEC officials.

At the press conference, Tuyen said the 13 round of multilateral negotiations about Vietnam's accession to the WTO will be held in July. He said he hoped it would be the last multilateral talks so that Vietnam could enter the global trade club by late 2006.

Vietnam on May 12 concluded bilateral negotiations about the accession with the United States, the last out of 28 partners which required bilateral talks.

Apart from the APEC summit, Vietnam, this year, is to host about 100 APEC events, including a joint foreign and trade ministerial meeting, meetings of ministers responsible for finance, trade, healthcare and tourism, and senior officials meetings.

APEC, the premier forum established in 1989 for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia- Pacific region, is the only inter-governmental grouping in the world operating on the basis of non-binding commitments, open dialogue and equal respect for the views of all participants.

APEC has 21 members which account for more than a third of the world's population, nearly 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), and about 47 percent of the world trade. It has worked to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region, creating efficient domestic economies and dramatically increasing exports.

Source: Xinhua