Barshefsky Predicts WTO Trade Talks
PATRICK McDOWELL / AP 11nov00

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — Almost a year after efforts to launch new global trade talks collapsed in Seattle, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said Saturday that the World Trade Organization would likely agree on fresh negotiations by 2001.

``I would think well within the next year, yes,'' Barshefsky told The Associated Press in Singapore, just before she was to fly to Brunei, where Pacific Rim leaders, including President Clinton, will hold their annual summit this week.

The disastrous WTO meeting in Seattle was a big blow for Barshefsky and the Clinton administration, with protesters battling police outside and trade ministers on the inside unable to agree on a formula for new trade liberalization talks.

This week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum can do no more than urge new WTO talks, but Barshefsky expressed confidence the world's trade ministers can soon find enough common ground to make it happen.

``We, Europe and a number of the developing countries have been in the process of laying quite a bit of groundwork for it,'' Barshefsky said by telephone. ``And I think the question is not whether there will be a new round, but when. It's reasonable to presume that a new round will be inaugurated, certainly, within the next year.''

Barchevsky sounded more optimistic than others gathering here ahead of the APEC summit.

Malaysia — which believes the WTO still hasn't done enough to meet the concerns of developing countries — has expressed skepticism that APEC will even call for WTO talks, given the deep divisions between rich and poor nations in the WTO.

But Barshefsky said: ``Quite a bit of the resistance is moderating, and I think that without a new round we do risk the atomization of global trade, and that would be a disastrous result.''

At their summit, leaders from the 21 APEC nations are also expected to ask OPEC to boost oil output to bring down fuel bills in the consuming nations.

Pacific Rim economies are projected to grow by 3.5 percent next year, but persistent high oil prices could slash those prospects by almost one-third, officials said Saturday.

APEC economic ministers start their meetings Sunday, followed by the gathering of heads of state Wednesday and Thursday.

APEC is a loose grouping of 21 economies with a goal of free trade between both sides of the Pacific Rim by 2020.

The members are Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru and the United States; China, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam; and Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.