Asian eco to aim preliminary non-farm WTO accord by July

Chiba (Japan), Apr 11: Ministers and senior trade officials from seven Asian economies have agreed that they should aim for a preliminary accord on non-farm trade liberalisation by the end of July under the World Trade Organization, Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.

In a one-day informal session held in Chiba yesterday, Chiba prefecture, host Japan and six other Asian economies -- China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- confirmed they should try to strike a broad agreement by July on ways to reduce tariffs on items such as industrial goods and fisheries with some numerical goals, he said.

'It was really significant for the Asian economies to get together and frankly exchange views on this matter. As members of the same region, we agreed to cooperate with each other for the success of a WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong (scheduled for December),'Nakagawa said in a press conference after the informal session.

The unofficial meeting aimed at narrowing gaps over market access for non-farm items was chaired by Nakagawa, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister.

Stefan Johannesson of Iceland, Chairman of the WTO's negotiating group of non-agricultural market access, also attended the session at the Makuhari Messe Convention center.

Nakagawa said participants backed his personal summary presented at the session. In the paper, the Japanese Minister noted a formula for cutting tariffs on non-farm items should be 'such that higher tariffs are subjected to higher rate of reduction'.

(Bureau Report)