The third APEC Senior Officials Meeing (SOM III) wrapped up Sunday with consensus on some issues which will be presented for endorsement by APEC Ministers and Leaders in November, including the resume of Doha round negotiations, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The SOM III called for countries, especially those playing an important role in the multilateral trade talks, to resume the negotiations as soon as possible, and supported senior officials from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members in submitting this content to the 18th APEC Joint Ministerial Meeting and the 13th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting slated for Nov. 15-16 and Nov. 18-19, respectively, in Hanoi capital.

Senior officials also considered the role of Regional Trade Arrangements and Free Trade Agreements (RTAs and FTAs) in relation to APEC's free trade and investment goals and the series of model measures being developed for economies to use as a guide in the process of negotiating RTAs and FTAs. These measures, which are intended to cover most potential FTA chapters, seek to improve the quality and transparency of RTAs and FTAs and will be presented to APEC ministers in November.

Senior officials approved a draft action program on trade facilitation to reduce transaction costs by five percent in the 2006-2010 period. They also discussed the APEC reform, including three directions proposed by hosts Vietnam, namely improving "operation efficiency, operation connection and operation dynamics."

They also touched upon APEC's work on intellectual property rights, life sciences, technology choice principles, counter terrorism, emergency preparedness, health security, anti- corruption, gender, agricultural biotechnology, electronic commerce and customs.

Up to 1,331 delegates from 21 APEC members participated in the SOM III and over 40 related meetings and seminars from Sept. 4-17 in Vietnam's central Da Nang city and neighbor Quang Nam province.

Source: Xinhua