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MANILA, Philippines—Instead of bickering over which country should be the driving force in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC leaders should focus on developing smaller trade blocs to accelerate its aim of a free trade area in the Pacific Rim, according to former President Fidel Ramos.
“We should not be talking about the driving force. Rather, let’s develop clusters of doable partners,” said Ramos at a press briefing on his arrival from China.
Ramos said APEC, which groups 21 “economies” rimming the Pacific Ocean, should stick to its original goal of free trade or trade liberalization.
European-style “borderless” arrangements such as the free migration of labor and customs unions would be difficult considering that APEC member states are not contiguous and are separated by the vast Pacific Ocean, he said.
Ramos was reacting to reports that prospects for regional economic integration in the APEC region were mired in debates over who should be the “driving force,” or leading country in the system, with APEC members lining up behind either the United States or Japan.
APEC heads of state and governments will be meeting for the annual leaders’ summit from Nov. 8 to 15 in Singapore.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the APEC leaders, including President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, would be discussing, among other topics, the acceleration of regional economic integration and the multilateral trading system for the 20-year-old organization.
Japan, which will be chairing APEC next year, has forwarded its proposal for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia.
India also has a separate proposal for an Asian Economic Community.
The plans overlap with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) plans for its own economic integration and free trade zone.
The so-called “ASEAN plus Three” dialogue partnership includes the 10 ASEAN members, plus China, Japan and South Korea.
ASEAN has also signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand and Australia.
A few years ago, several Southeast Asian states also grouped with South Pacific and South American countries to form the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, which also has trade liberalization aims.
Ramos said creating more blocs instead of talking about the driving force would help spur the economies of the individual APEC members.
“I used to have a proposal for an association of North Asian countries, which would include China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Russia. There’s not even an intergovernmental or even environmental linkage there now, no formal network except in the private sector,” he said.
He said he also has his idea of a Central East Asia “growth polygon,” composed of the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Guam, Marianas and several southern Chinese provinces.
Another cluster created under his term, the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asian Growth Area (Bimp-Eaga), resulted in mutual benefits ranging from security, economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, interfaith exchange and tourism, Ramos said.
“There are no driving forces in these clusters. We just conceived of an idea and threw it to the leaders so that they could make decisions. And then we let everyone be a driving force. This is how we spurred ASEAN to work,” he said.
