TEXT/TRANSCRIPT: APEC COORDINATOR WOLF 10/22 WORLDNET
(U.S. pursuing six goals for Vancouver APEC meeting)

Washington -- The United States is pursuing six goals in the run-up to the next Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting in Vancouver, according to Ambassador John S. Wolf, U.S. Coordinator for APEC.

During a USIA Worldnet interactive dialogue with audiences in Beijing, Seoul, Manila and Sydney October 22, Wolf listed the goals for the November 24 meeting:

"First, through the involvement of the APEC Finance Ministers, we are looking at how APEC can help promote and/or restore financial stability in Southeast Asia. Restructuring and building competitive national financial institutions are key to this effort.

"Second, APEC is in the process of identifying sectors for Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization. We want an outcome that is economically significant and one that contributes to growth -- infrastructure-related goods and services, for instance, fit this specification.

"Third, we are committed to providing concrete results that make a difference to business.... New air express techniques or a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) to eliminate needless retesting of telecommunications equipment are two examples....

"Fourth, we would like to use APEC to support President Clinton's Electronic Commerce initiative.... We have identified a number of issues, ranging from tariffs to intellectual property rights, which are vital to the continued expansion of this leading-edge industry.

"Fifth is an issue right out of today's headlines: climate change and the environment.

"Environmental threats -- as we have learned graphically from the terrible fires and haze affecting Indonesia and Malaysia and much of the region, and other more gradual threats such as marine and coral reef degradation, and global climate change -- threaten to undermine our collective future. These threats demand our joint attention.

"Finally, each APEC member economy has put forward an Individual Action Plan (IAP) which is its road map to free trade and investment by 2010/2020.

"APEC is built on the concept of concerted unilateralism, the idea that each economy voluntarily will move toward liberalization, and that the competitiveness of the marketplace will ensure others follow suit. The result will be an open, integrated market where all participants benefit."

"The establishment of regional institutions such as APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum are the first steps toward the building of a Pacific community that will solve its problems as a community," Wolf said.

"Ultimately," he said, "it is the soundness of this community, the commitment of its members to make it work and to share in the security, prosperity and values it has to offer, that will keep the economic dynamism of the Asia-Pacific region alive and expand it for all the world to share."

"The Pacific community," Wolf said, "is real. And the United States will continue to be a vital part of it."

Following is the official text of Wolf's opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, followed by a transcript of the program which begins in progress:

(begin text)

WORLDNET/EANET
Wednesday, October 22, 1997, 9:00-10:00pm
OPENING REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR WOLF

In his first term, President Clinton set forth a vision of a Pacific community based on a mutually reinforcing framework of "shared strength, shared prosperity and shared commitment to democratic values."

To ensure the security of the region, we maintain our forward military presence in the Western Pacific and our five treaty alliances. In the ASEAN Regional Forum where we discuss the full range of pressing Asian security issues.

To demonstrate our commitment to democratic values, the United States remains an untiring advocate for the development of good government, open societies and the rule of law in Asia.

Finally, to promote continued prosperity in the region, our economic policies have concentrated on accelerating the pace of liberalization and market opening in Asia. The most important vehicle for advancing those policies is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum -- APEC.

Through APEC we have created a framework where the leaders of the region's 18 economies can meet and share views on issues of common concern. The APEC Leaders' Meeting is a place where the statesmanship and leverage unique to the Leaders can be brought to bear on the problems of the region.

In about a month, those leaders meet in Vancouver, British Columbia.

But this year, because of pressing regional issues like the Southeast Asian financial crisis, the Vancouver Leaders' Meeting may end up being quite different from the four previous APEC Leaders' Meetings.

From Blake Island to Subic, the Leaders set out a long-term vision of Pacific community and the work plan to achieve that vision.

APEC's efforts, up to this point, have worked on two sides of the same issue: building the marketplace of the Asia-Pacific while at the same time ensuring that marketplace remains open.

This year, if we are to continue building the kind of Pacific community envisioned at Blake Island, APEC Leaders will have to deal with today's immediate issues -- issues related to how the region's economies can adjust to their recent economic difficulties, pursuing reform where necessary, and get back on the path to strong, sustainable economic growth.

Some are saying the United States and developed countries actually welcome the financial crisis now happening. Nothing could be more wrong. The U.S. has fought three wars to help keep Asia free; and we have provided the security umbrella under which almost every nation in the Asia-Pacific has prospered. Millions of Americans are of Asian and Pacific descent; thousands of U.S. companies are involved in the region and millions of American jobs depend on its well being. When Asia hurts, we hurt too.

Six Goals for Vancouver

The United States is pursuing six goals in the run-up to the APEC Leaders' Meeting in Vancouver:

First, through the involvement of the APEC Finance Ministers, we are looking at how APEC can help promote and/or restore financial stability in Southeast Asia. Restructuring and building competitive national financial institutions are key to this effort.

Second, APEC is in the process of identifying sectors for Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization. We want an outcome that is economically significant and one that contributes to growth -- infrastructure-related goods and services, for instance, fit this specification.

Third, we are committed to providing concrete results that make a difference to business. We want to move beyond seminars, dialogue, Web pages and databases. We want to use APEC to clear the trade underbrush -- find an idea, find some like-minded members and then push the idea forward.

New air express techniques or a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) to eliminate needless retesting of telecommunications equipment are two examples. We will accelerate work to build a network of natural gas delivery by combining government facilitation and business action, official policy and private practice.

Fourth, we would like to use APEC to support President Clinton's Electronic Commerce initiative.

I know this technology is new, but it is not a threat. It is a major new enabler of potential benefit to countries and businesses large and small.

We believe in the principle that governments should intervene only minimally to create a stable environment for electronic commerce. Let the global private sector take the lead. We have identified a number of issues, ranging from tariffs to intellectual property rights, which are vital to the continued expansion of this leading-edge industry.

Fifth is an issue right out of today's headlines: climate change and the environment.

Environmental threats -- as we have learned graphically from the terrible fires and haze affecting Indonesia and Malaysia and much of the region, and other more gradual threats such as marine and coral reef degradation, and global climate change -- threaten to undermine our collective future. These threats demand our joint attention.

Finally, each APEC member economy has put forward an Individual Action Plan (IAP) which is its road map to free trade and investment by 2010/2020.

APEC is built on the concept of concerted unilateralism, the idea that each economy voluntarily will move toward liberalization, and that the competitiveness of the marketplace will ensure others follow suit. The result will be an open, integrated market where all participants benefit.

The establishment of regional institutions such as APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum are the first steps toward the building of a Pacific community that will solve its problems AS A COMMUNITY.

Ultimately, it is the soundness of this community, the commitment of its members to make it work and to share in the security, prosperity and values it has to offer, that will keep the economic dynamism of the Asia-Pacific region alive and expand it for all the world to share.

The Pacific community is real. And the United States will continue to be a vital part of it.

(end text)

(begin transcript)

WORLDNET "DIALOGUE"
UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY
Television and Film Service of Washington, D.C.

GUEST: Ambassador John S. Wolf, U.S. Coordinator for APEC

TOPIC: APEC

POSTS: Beijing, Seoul, Manila, Sydney

HOST: Jenifer Bochner

DATE: October 22, 1997 TIME: 21:00 - 22:00 EDT

AMB. WOLF: (In progress) -- quite neutralizing with this amazing new technology. Sure the big company benefits, but the new company doesn't have to face the barriers to access that it faces now that are in many cases prohibitive. So I think it really is, as we come to understand it, something that will benefit us all.

Now, when I was recently in Southeast Asia, I heard a number of people who talked about the sort of continuum of goods and services on the Internet, all the way across the financial transactions, the $300 trillion of financial transactions. Really, it's possible to divide between the two. It's possible to talk about goods and services on the Internet. And it's possible to deal with that a bit differently than we'll have to deal with international financial transactions that are transmitted electronically. I think that if we have a chance to discuss this and talk this through that there will be a lot more understanding -- understanding on that, on issues like taxation, and a whole series of other issues that are difficult. And, as a said at the top of the hour, they are quite daunting, because they are so new. This is a whole new approach to doing business.

Q: I am -- (inaudible) -- in Korea. You said in your opening remarks APEC is built on the concept of concerted unilateralism and voluntarily liberalization. But in reality it has always been the U.S.A. that took the initiative, as we have seen in U.S.-Japan disputes about shipping regulations and the U.S. initiating so-called Super 301 procedures against the South Korean automobile market. What are your thoughts on this point?

AMB. WOLF: Well, we don't think that there is any monopoly on leadership in APEC. And in fact I have always said to my colleagues -- my American colleagues who participate in various APEC fora, in the working group and what-not, that even when we have ideas we have to find people who share those ideas who want to move forward with us. On air express delivery, yes, we had some ideas, but yes, we went out and found co-sponsors. For instance, China is a co-sponsor with us on parts of the air express delivery initiative that is going on in the customs working group.

And in other cases, as we look at voluntary sectoral liberalization, we are talking very actively with Korea and taking Korea's ideas on board in a number of the areas -- chemicals, and how we might move forward on some kind of a sectoral liberalization there. We have talked with Malaysia about oilseeds, and New Zealand about forest products, and Hong Kong about toys.

So there is no monopoly on leadership in this forum. In fact, it is incumbent upon every economy to use the forum to bring ideas to it. We have a big debate that takes place all the time in APEC. Do we have too much trade and investment liberalization facilitation and too little economic and technical cooperation? Well, that's a -- I guess I think that's kind of a false dichotomy. We need both of them, and we need ideas from all of the APEC economies in all three areas -- liberalization facilitation and economic and technical cooperation. Sometimes when I ask my fellow senior officials though what ideas, I get an answer, "We'll be back to you." And so I ask them a few months later, and it's still, "We'll be back to you." Well, we won't apologize in the United States for bringing ideas forward, but APEC is built on consensus. It is voluntary. We will look for those economies which want to move forward. We'll work with them. And we know the competitive nature of the marketplace will cause other economies to look at that example and each one make its own decision as to whether and how it will go along with that idea or do it in a different way.

And that's the nature of APEC. It's a quite fluid thing where the coalitions and the groups that move can be large or small, 18 or 18-minus-X -- always voluntary, always consensus driven, and always -- but always moving forward -- forward towards those Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment by 2010 and 2020, and always looking at how can we build the marketplace as well as open it up. How can we make sure that the benefits are widely spread to as many of the citizens of APEC as possible?

MS. BOCHNER: Seoul, we'll be back with you later on in our program. We now go to our friends in the Philippines for more of your questions and comments. Please go ahead.

Q: Thank you. I was not able to give my name and affiliation the first time around, Ambassador Wolf. I am -- (inaudible) -- from People's Television Network.

One of the directives contained in the Manila Action Plan for APEC, or MAPA, which was agreed upon by the 18 economic leaders in November 1996, was the intensification this year of the work on simplification of customs, clearance procedure, effective implementation of intellectual property rights commitments, harmonization of customs evaluation and the like. We know that in the region video and software piracy are quite rampant. In this light, what important strides have been taken towards the goal of intensification of the things just mentioned?

AMB. WOLF: Yipes. That's a complicated question, because it starts to get into a lot of different things. And let me just give you a few points. One, the customs subgroup on the committee on trade and investment met a couple of weeks ago, and I understand there was broad agreement among all of the economies to move forward on a plan -- on a three-year plan to achieve a series of things that are related to achieving international customs organization guidelines, and that's good news. And a subgroup -- I suppose eight or nine economies of -- and I think the Philippines is one of those economies -- has decided that they will move forward faster for instance on an improved air express cargo handling technique, dealing with some simple -- relatively simple-sounding, but perhaps complicated, issues like risk assessment, automated risk assessment. Instead of passing all the packages in front of a customs official and having him say, "I'll look at that one and that one and that one." If you do it on a computer base, then you know already by the time the plane lands which X packages will be looked at, and they're slid off to the side, and all the rest of them just move on, separating release of items from customs and the payments of duties. This enables the plane to land, to get those packages separated that are going to be looked at by customs. And all the rest of them go virtually directly from the plane to the consumer. Dealing with issues like the documentation -- bundling up small packages into one large consignment.

These are all small things, but these are the cost-adding items. These add cost to each transaction, and the net effect of simplifying these procedures is the movement of packages from origin to destination enables people to cut the costs of the transaction and therefore make it cheaper for the end consumer to get that product. And that's really an important step for APEC economies. And it's the kind of clearing of trade underbrush where APEC work can really work well.

On intellectual property rights protection there is a good deal going on, but I suspect that even more needs to be done as we move into the digital age. The whole question of where investors invest and where companies will be willing to sell technology, software, applications that may cost hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, to develop -- they will sell them to places that have an intellectual property rights protection. So the rule of law, the application of fair justice, is really an important part of what we need to do in APEC, and I think that's an area where we have a work program. But I suspect it probably needs -- we need to do even more. I know the Business Advisory Council will reiterate its recommendations that this be an area for intensified effort.

Q: Ambassador Wolf, on the subject of the environment, will APEC address the issue of the El Nino phenomenon that we are very concerned about in the region, perhaps come up with a project or a program under the technical cooperative component of APEC?

AMB. WOLF: The SOM chairman has just written to senior officials, and in it Len Edwards has talked about Foreign Minister Axworthy's interest in looking at the question of emergency preparedness. And I suspect that that discussion will probably expand beyond simple emergency preparedness to the whole question of the haze and what we can do to -- in terms of institution building, how we can deal with advanced meteorological forecasting and preparation, mitigation of risks. You know, there is a drought this year. Some people are saying next year you'll end up with the reverse, and that there will be an unusual amount of rain. So next year's problem may not be droughts and fires but mud slides and floods. Well, if -- and don't take that from me -- I'm not the weather forecaster.

But what we can do is a better job of using the new technologies and the new techniques that are now becoming available, so that we can look at weather cycles over the longer period, and we can take action together to see how we can minimize the adverse consequences for our peoples. And if we can do that we are really achieving APEC's purpose of building community. We are really achieving its purpose of making sure that the benefits of APEC cooperation are widely spread through our populations in general. I know that was an important theme last year for President Ramos, and I think it's an area where the haze this year has made clear to all of us that the problems of the global environment, the problems of climate change, are not just problems for developed countries, as President Clinton said in his speech at the National Geographic Society today. The solutions are going to be solutions in which we all have to participate. I think that this discussion is a useful one, because there are no economies that are in general growing faster than the economies of the Asia Pacific. There are no economies that have more to do with how we shape the environment that we pass on to our children.

MS. BOCHNER: Our next set of questions will come to us from Australia, and in particular our friends in Sydney. Please go ahead.

Q: Ambassador Wolf, my name is Duncan McFarland from the Australian Financial Review. My question has two parts. First of all, what is the U.S. view about APEC forming a country support fund to supplement the IMF? And, secondly, if the Japanese were to bankroll such a fund, how would that affect the standing of APEC?

AMB. WOLF: I think the question -- it is inevitable that the question of the financial situation is going to be discussed -- and in fact already is -- by APEC. APEC finance deputies met in Hong Kong. They're going to meet again probably in November. I am just absolutely certain that this would be a prime discussion item for the ministers and for leaders.

There are a lot of questions and there are a lot of proposals out there about how to deal with the financial situation, you know, from one extreme all the way to the other extreme. I know that there are a number of ideas about funds -- some that would supplement the IMF and others that would stand independent of the IMF. But I think what we really need to look at is how we can find effective mechanisms. Are there things that we in APEC can do to improve supervisory skills, to improve the transparency and information? There are a whole host of things that the finance ministers and perhaps central bankers are and will be discussing during the next month, and I don't want to predict where they are going to come out. But I know that it's important that we all work together. I know that we all share the consequences of the instability that is taking place in Southeast Asia. It has a consequence for us here in the United States. ASEAN countries are our fourth largest trading partner. I know it has a consequence for you in Australia as well. So we will all be looking for the best ways that we can help the region to take the policy steps they have to take in order to get back on a sustainable path of economic growth.

Q: Ambassador Wolf, Gerard Noonan from Canberra Times. Financial instability in first of all Thailand and then Malaysia and Indonesia, and of course now through Taipei and Seoul and Hong Kong, has many eyes looking to China with some concern. U.S.-Chinese relations may be improving at present. But I wonder whether you could give us your views on whether sustained instability of the sort that we have been seeing over the past month or so could derail that sort of detente, and what role do you see APEC playing in it?

AMB. WOLF: Well, APEC is about coming together and discussing opportunities and common opportunities and common problems. I'm not sure that I can give you a good answer to your question. China has been an active participant in APEC. APEC is a much better place for the presence of China and Chinese Taipei and China Hong Kong. And it's a unique forum int hat respect. APEC is about achieving the vision of our leaders of the Pacific community that is based on shared values, shared prosperity, and China is a part of the effort to reach to that community. So I am not sure that I quite know where to answer your question.

I think the -- it is true that we are looking forward with eager anticipation to the meeting of the two presidents in just a few days. We think that's an important development in the U.S.-Chinese relations. It's important for the Asia Pacific and globally as well. We cooperate with China in so many areas. We have issues to work out with them in a number of areas. And we have worked together in APEC. For instance, we're co-sponsoring an initiative on air express cargo delivery.

So I think APEC helps. It helps China to be succeed through the work of the committee on trade and investment, the working groups, how rules-based trade is conducted, how one moves forward in terms of economic liberalization -- all kinds of things that the Party Congress talked about in September.

But I think APEC helps not only China in that respect, but it helps all of us, because we're able to look at best practices. We're able to see what works and what doesn't work. There are lots of role models out there for each economy to look at and each economy to benefit from. I think APEC is -- I mean, it has only begun to -- it has only nicked -- it has only dealt with a very little bit of its potential. There's much more that we can do to focus our activity in APEC to move forward on concrete results and to get -- to make real achievements, whether it's in market opening or whether it's in building infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, transportation, whether it's working on the environment. I think APEC has an enormous challenge. The fact that we have 18 economies that are committed to the vision of our leaders, the fact that our leaders meet every year to push us forward. It's a real important part of maintaining and building the security and the stability of the Asia Pacific.

Q: Ambassador Wolf, Andrew Balance (ph) from the Asia Australia Institute. Do you think that the currency crisis in Southeast Asia, a region where the state rather than the market has been the principal influence on economic development, is a sign that too much trade liberalization is in fact part of the problem rather than the solution; and, following on from that, a strong argument that I think is too broad, motivated by Anglo-American economic ideas, and enforces somewhat the need for an East Asian separate grouping?

AMB. WOLF: Quite the contrary. Frankly, I think the success of Asia has been most pronounced in those economies which have opened up, have liberalized, and have made themselves competitive, whether it's -- and you can look at any one of the success stories and compare them to those that have not succeeded as well.

The lesson of the last few months I think is that there were excesses. Resources were not used efficiently. In some cases that's because the state actually intervened to make sure that effective -- that the market didn't operate as it should. But I think the move towards liberalization not only in goods and services -- not only in the goods market, trade of merchandise, but also in terms of the financial markets to bring in competition, to develop new and strong instruments, to put in place adequate regulatory and supervisory authorities to do the kinds of things -- to make the kinds of wise decisions that the governments have made over a period of several decades in many cases.

I think it's getting back to some of the basics, and the basics are not about closing their marketplaces -- that's hardly the lesson of a Hong Kong or a Singapore, or even a Malaysia. I mean, when I was ambassador to Malaysia, what I saw was an economy that was moving forward, moving out, competing all around the world. And I think that's necessary, but it has to be done in an effective way, and it has to be done with an eye to the fact that resources are scarce and competition is in fact increasingly active for those foreign direct investment dollars. So the investment climate, rule of law, efficient use of resources -- all of those things are part and parcel of why -- of moving Southeast Asian countries back onto a path which should have high growth and continued broadening of the benefits of economic liberalization -- broadening to all of the sectors of the economy.

If you look at the countries of Southeast Asia, if you look at social indicators and things like that, what you see is that in a number of cases that actually -- the number of poor people, very poor, has actually gotten smaller. The benefits are actually being distributed -- but not nearly well enough. That's one of the lessons.

MS. BOCHNER: Thank you in Sydney. We're going to return now to Beijing to begin a round where we will take one question from each site. Please begin in Beijing.

Q: Hello, Mr. Wolf. I'm -- (inaudible) -- from China Institute of International Studies. I know now the United States government is -- (inaudible) -- developing countries to speed up the process of open markets. I want to know now was -- how do you think about -- (inaudible) -- the developing countries to open their markets? And because the developing countries are so -- (inaudible) -- concerned with the technology transfers, and just now you've mentioned -- (inaudible) -- technology through open markets, but from outside -- have a different idea about that. I just want to know now do you have any clear ideas on what the United States wants to do on the technology transfers?

The second question is that -- how do you think about the implications of the Southeast Asia financial crisis to the -- (inaudible) -- ? Thank you very much.

AMB. WOLF: Could you repeat the end of your last question? What would be the impact on what?

Q: Now, the financial crisis implications for the foreign investment.

AMB. WOLF: On the first question on technology transfer, we have a lot of discussions about this in APEC, and I think often some of the developing members of APEC think that there is a large bank somewhere with -- or a large warehouse with all kinds of technology just arrayed on the shelf, and that the transfer of it is easy -- we just go in with a forklift and move it out. Now, that's a little fictitious, and I don't mean to be too catty about it.

But the important issue I think in terms of technology transfer is how the economies of the Asia Pacific, the developing economies, can make themselves attractive for the people who have the technology -- and that's the people who develop power plants, the private sector. That's the people who develop transportation infrastructure -- that's the private sector. The people who develop information technology for the 21st century. Again it's the private sector. The secret for getting access to new technology is to have an attractive investment climate. And if it's there, then private sector companies not only from the United States but from countries all around the world -- and that includes some of the developing members of APEC -- people will come and they will invest and they will bring modern and attractive technology.

I remember my colleague from New Zealand was telling me how New Zealand had gone from a fairly rigid state structure in their telecommunications industry -- one national company controlled all telecommunications. And they have liberalized that, and they have broadened -- they have allowed a number of foreign investors to come, and the only qualifying point was how good the technology was that they brought with them. So the consequence is that New Zealand has a remarkably diverse and remarkably effective telecommunications sector, and it's open, and the New Zealand people are beneficiaries. Well, this would be the same from modern energy generation capability. In China that may be clean-coal technologies or gas technologies -- a whole variety of things. Those are all -- they are all out there to be had, and the investors will bring them.

On the question of the Southeast Asia financial crisis, what I tried to say is that this does not have to be the end of the Asian miracle -- quite the contrary. There are good reasons why the countries of East Asia are going to remain attractive. There are some measures that have to be taken in order to reform the economy. And as those reforms are taken, I have heard investors say they're just looking forward to going right back into the marketplace.

Q: I'm -- (inaudible) -- in Korea again. It has already been eight years since APEC was launched in 1989, and there has been many meetings and declarations and many talks, but some have doubts about APEC's effectiveness. And they say the forum achieved very little in substance. What do you think APEC can achieve in the future other than talks and dialogues?

AMB. WOLF: Well, I would not minimize the relationships that have been built or the idea that leaders get together every year and discuss the opportunities and the problems of the region. I think that's a very important contribution to peace and stability and to growth in the region. But for anybody who has questions, I think you just have to look at the information technology agreement. There APEC helped to lead the world to liberalize a $500 billion sector, and the benefits are going to be available to people worldwide, but nobody will benefit more than the people of the Asia Pacific. We're looking at early voluntary sectoral liberalization this year, electronic commerce, environment initiatives. There's a whole series of things. The key now is you're right -- to move to increasingly focused outcomes where we get real things done that have real benefits for the people of the Asia Pacific.

Q: Ambassador Wolf, the Philippine economy is still based a great deal on agriculture. There are still some fears among our local agriculture entrepreneurs that our industry, local agricultural industry, may get hurt as we open to liberalization, globalization, free trade -- the battle cries of APEC. What can government and private sectors do in the Asia Pacific, in the Philippines for one, to cushion such effects?

AMB. WOLF: We all have sensitive sectors. Agriculture is sensitive in almost every economy. But we are certain that it is possible to move to greater openness, greater efficiency. The Philippine economy, as it grows, is going to draw people out of that sector and into manufacturing, into services, and over the coming years you may actually find that liberalization -- you will find that liberalization is an absolute necessity. It could help to modernize I suppose the agricultural sector, provide them with extension services, make them more effective.

I know that the Philippines economy benefits also not only from having its own agricultural sector, but being able to export its agricultural products all around Southeast Asia. I remember eating them when I was in Malaysia. So there are some costs, but there are a lot of benefits, and I think a country like the Philippines will be a beneficiary.

Q: Ambassador, Michael Wesley from the Asia Australia Institute. Can I ask a question about the future of APEC past Vancouver, and particularly about the future of the leaders meetings? There are some arguments around that say after Osaka and Manila and the individual action plans the economics part of APEC has become a matter of negotiations amongst officials. And here in Australia we are aware that the leaders of the Asia Pacific are busy people, and all it would take was for a President Clinton or a President Jiang or a Prime Minister Hashimoto not to attend to see the leaders summit either die or lose some of their importance. Does the United States have any sort of new issues of importance that can be discussed at future leaders summits that might keep these leaders interested in coming along?

AMB. WOLF: Well, my impression is that this is likely to be the most interesting leaders meeting of the four, because the issues that we face now are serious ones that affect us today -- they're not just about long-term vision and long-term planning; but there are some real current-day issues. And I am sure the leaders are going to get involved in the issues that relate to the financial situation, the environment, the impact of trade liberalization on all of our economies -- I know that's an issue that Australia often talks about. I suspect this is going to be a real interesting leaders meeting. And I know that President Clinton places a great deal of importance on this one. I know that he's planning to go to Vancouver, because I just got the tasking memo from the White House saying, "Prepare the briefing book for next month." So we are going full steam ahead for this year, and I haven't heard any qualms about the future.

Q: (Inaudible) -- office. Ambassador, I apologize, I have a mild cold -- I hope you won't get infected through this Worldnet. I have two simple questions, but my friend here tells me I can only have one question. So I will ask one.

As regarding sector liberalization, what are those sectors the U.S. hopes to be liberalized? And how is sector liberalization going to be implemented by different timetables among APEC members on the basis of volunteer principles?

AMB. WOLF: Well, we worry a lot about viruses on the electronic means, but this won't do it. We hope that there will be a good economically significant package that's available -- maybe it will relate to infrastructure, maybe to chemicals. We'll find a critical mass in APEC, we'll take that critical mass to the World Trade Organization and we'll get everybody signed on, just like we did in the ITA.

MS. BOCHNER: Unfortunately we've run out of time for today's program. I want to thank all of our participants joining us for this program, and especially Ambassador Wolf for giving us a clearer idea of what to expect from the APEC's meetings in Canada. For Worldnet Television, I'm Jenifer Bochner.

(end transcript)