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SEN LAM: The ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum also agreed to outline a plan on possible ways of reaching a regional free trade area.

Let's cross now to Tokyo and Australia's Trade Minister, Simon Crean. Simon Crean, good morning.

SIMON CREAN: Good morning, Sen.

SEN LAM: Minister, you attended the weekend meeting. Did you find the exercise useful?

SIMON CREAN: Very useful. Useful from the point of view of momentum for Doha, as you mentioned, and remember that APEC has been a dynamic force for momentum in World Trade Organisation rounds before. It was instrumental in breakthroughs on the Uruguay Round. It is the strongest trade bloc, if you like, supportive of a Doha conclusion. It gave strong endorsement from the process that's developed now to try and bring this round to a conclusion, what's referred to as the horizontal process or the cocktail approach, getting away from traditional silos, the negotiating groups and looking to the what ifs are needed to bring all the moving parts together.

Now, obviously the other recognition, of course, is the fact that the G20 is meeting. The importance of our momentum linking into that G20 momentum, that G20 meeting was very strongly argued, and that's because G20 leaders want the Doha Round concluded.

So the political will exists. What we really need to do is to get to the hard reality of bargaining and negotiating the give and take of previous arrangements didn't easily facilitate that. We hope that these new arrangements will, so it was important momentum, in my view.

SEN LAM: So did you get a similar sense of urgency from your APEC colleagues?

SIMON CREAN: Absolutely. They want the round concluded and bear in mind that this is an APEC meeting that took place - takes place 2010. The time, the assessment of the Bogor Declaration was trade liberalisation for the Asia-Pacific. Now, there has been substantial progress on Bogor, on the Bogor Declaration, not just trade liberalisation but services, investment. It's not to say that it's been completed, not to say it's perfect, there's more work got to be done but it's no coincidence that that commitment to stronger liberalisation has seen this region emerge as the fastest-growing region in the world.

It's been the most trade-liberalising and it's been the fastest-growing so what APEC is saying is not only get Doha concluded so that there's a global commitment to greater trade liberalisation, greater economic stimulus, if you like, but we've got to continue the work in the Asia-Pacific region because we're not going to let the momentum slip. We're going to continue to keep that dynamism going because all countries within the region have benefited from it.

SEN LAM: And, Minister, Japan of course has a new leader, the fifth prime minister in three years, what do you see the new Prime Minister Naoto Kan bringing with him in terms of Japan's economic recovery?

SIMON CREAN: I think it's very significant with this new government that there is a strong message of commitment to reform. I met with the now Prime Minister Kan before he became Prime Minister, some two years ago, when he was in the Opposition parties. He was then very strongly supportive of economic reform measures, interestingly very strongly supportive of concluding a free trade agreement with Australia.

Minister Okada, Minister Naoshima, the two ministers that hosted APEC this weekend in Sapporo, they are very reform-minded ministers as well.

In the discussions I had with Minister Okada he reassured me of the commitment to concluding the FTA and reassured me in particular of the new Prime Minister's commitment to strength in the reform agenda.

He's already laid out ambitious plans in terms of the domestic economy but so far as the regional activity is concerned, a very strong commitment indeed, so we welcome that.

SEN LAM: And just briefly, in terms of bilateral ties, do you think that the fact that Australia is taking Japan to the International Court of Justice on its whaling practices, do you think that would have the potential to harm bilateral relations?

SIMON CREAN: No, I don't and this was an interesting point in the discussions yesterday with Minister Okada. We discussed this and we agreed totally that whilst there were strong disagreements and whilst this was an important issue for Japan in its own right, the issue of whaling, that it should not impact on the broader economic trade, investment, and other relationships.

The strong commitment of the Japanese government as is ours is to recognise the separation of that issue, the whaling issue, understand the fundamental differences, but to get on with strengthening the bilateral relationship and he was very strong on that point in response.

SEN LAM: Minister, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your time.

SIMON CREAN: Thank you very much.

SEN LAM: That was Australia's Trade Minister, Simon Crean, on the line there from Tokyo.

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