APEC aims to free blocked trade deal, clip bird flu
PUSAN, South Korea, Monday (Reuters) Leaders of economies around the
Pacific rim gather this week for a meeting that has evolved from an
economic talk-shop into a forum for problems as wide-ranging as birdflu,
trade and terrorism.
The 21 leaders meeting Friday and Saturday in this port city about
420 km (260 miles) southeast of South Korea's capital Seoul will feature
two days of multilateral meetings but also the inevitable flurry of
two-way talks.
The main issues on the agenda are averting a breakdown in the Doha
round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at talks due in mid-December
and coming up with measures to work together if bird flu becomes a
pandemic with the potential to kill millions.
Although not on the agenda, the status of international efforts to
end the nuclear programme of South Korea's neighbour to the north - and
what that means for the region's stability - will overshadow all.
And many will closely watch how Japan's prime minister is received in
the group, which includes many victims of Japan's aggression in World
War Two. Junichiro Koizumi has angered many in the region by visits to a
Tokyo war shrine that some say glorifies Japan's militaristic past. U.S.
President George W. Bush, coming to the meeting as part of an Asian trip
that includes China, Mongolia and Japan, will want to keep his war on
terror high on the agenda, analysts said.
Indeed, Bush was the one to put terrorism squarely on APEC's plate at
the 2001 summit in Shanghai soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, altering
the nature of the forum, perhaps forever. |