Vaile Welcomes APEC Leaders' Call for New WTO Round

Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, has welcomed the strong, unequivocal call by APEC Leaders for a new WTO round of multilateral trade negotiations.

Mr Vaile was commenting on the APEC Leaders Declaration issued in Brunei following the conclusion of the meeting of APEC Leaders.

"This year's APEC Meeting in Brunei confirmed why it remains the pre-eminent organisation for pursuing Australia's trade interests in the Asia-Pacific region," Mr Vaile said.

"Australia has played a key role in APEC this year beginning with the APEC Trade Ministers' Meeting which I hosted in Darwin in June.  This laid the groundwork for APEC Leaders to call for the launch of a new round in 2001". 

"Australia is at the forefront of efforts to build a fairer and more open international trading system.  APEC has been a key means of building support for a new round given its diverse membership which comprises over 60 per cent of world GDP".

"The reaffirmation by APEC Leaders of last year's Auckland Declaration is good news for Australian farmers.  It reaffirms the commitment that agricultural export subsidies should be eliminated in a new WTO round.  Leaders also gave their strong endorsement to continued progress in the WTO agriculture and services negotiations which kicked off this year". 

"The next WTO Ministerial meeting is scheduled to take place at the end of next year and WTO members now need to focus quickly on developing a balanced and broad based agenda to ensure that a round can be launched," Mr Vaile said.