*EPF104 11/22/2004
Transcript: United States Pleased by Outcome of Santiago APEC Meetings
(Official says APEC leaders came together on several initiatives) (3170)

The United States is very pleased with the way the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting in Santiago turned out, according to a senior administration official.

During a press briefing November 21, the official, who spoke on background, said: "APEC can be a powerful mechanism of addressing issues, both in the area of security and economy and trade in a way that are mutually reinforcing and complementary. ...[W]e were very pleased that the APEC leaders and the APEC process were able to come together on a number of very important initiatives that are very, sort of, concrete and will help advance the broader goal of promoting prosperity and security."

On the economic side, the official said the leaders reiterated their commitment to the World Trade Organization (WTO) process. "[T]oday's meeting resulted in a recommitment by the leaders to try to move the WTO negotiations further, in particular with an eye toward advancing significantly those negotiations by the time of the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the WTO scheduled for the end of 2006."

The leaders also launched the "Santiago Initiative," agreeing to undertake additional measures to try to eliminate barriers to regional trade that have arisen as a result of inconsistent rules from the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs). The leaders also agreed to explore the idea of an FTA best practices commitment so that FTAs do not end up being a hindrance to the regional economic integration.

The official said the leaders agreed to strengthen enforcement of intellectual property protections and to undertake a number of concrete actions to fight corruption, improve transparency, including toughening sanctions against corrupt behavior, denying safe haven to corrupt officials and other measures.

The leaders announced a number of initiatives designed to enhance the security of the people of the APEC member economies, the official said, including:

-- The adoption of strict regional controls on Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS);

-- A commitment to implement, conclude or aim to conclude an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the end of 2005;

-- An agreement to secure international shipping and ports by working toward implementation of the International Maritime Organization's International Ship and Port Facility Security Code;

-- A U.S.-Australia initiative to develop a regional movement alert list to check immediately (before or during flights) against records of lost and stolen passports;

-- Actions to improve cooperation to combat transnational terrorist networks by agreeing to take measurable steps toward the ratification and implementation of all basic U.N. counterterrorism conventions, including actions to cut off terrorist financing; and

-- A U.S.-Singapore effort to establish a regional emerging disease intervention (REDI) center to provide training and research to build regional capacity to prevent and respond to disease outbreaks and bioterror attacks.

Following is the White House transcript of the briefing:

(begin transcript)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Santiago, Chile)

For Immediate Release
November 21, 2004

BACKGROUND BRIEFING BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE APEC MEETINGS

Hyatt Regency Santiago
Santiago, Chile

3:00 P.M. (Local)

MS. BUCHAN: Good afternoon, everyone. Our background briefing is about to begin. Our briefers -- this will be on background; it's a senior administration official.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, how are you? The leaders have just concluded two days of meetings at the 12th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting. This meeting culminates a year-long work plan that's been undertaken since last year's summit to work on a number of initiatives launched at last year's summit, as well as to develop new initiatives that leaders could endorse at this year's meeting.

The leaders met yesterday to discuss the issues of human security. During that discussion, they had a wide-ranging discussion of the issues of counterterrorism, proliferation and other issues. Today they met to discuss regional economic issues. Those meetings occurred during a two-hour session followed by a lunch that the leaders had.

The result of the meeting is a declaration that was issued. It's a leaders declaration, in which, together with the APEC Foreign and Trade Ministers Declaration, reflects the range of agreements that were reached in the APEC leaders' process. As before, the meetings today and yesterday have shown that the APEC -- the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation process -- can serve as a very valuable tool to bring the countries in the Pacific region together to address issues of common interest and address common challenges.

In particular, there were two areas that were the focus of both the discussions, as well as the work that came out of this meeting. We have a fact sheet that we'll produce for you, that we'll issue to you shortly, in which we catalog the specific deliverables in more detail for you to take a look at and we can answer questions on.

But in the area of security, the leaders have announced a number of initiatives designed to enhance the security of the people of the APEC member economies. They announced an initiative to strengthen aviation security by cracking down on the proliferation and distribution of MANPADS, these shoulder-launched rockets. They undertook commitments to adopt the firmer controls on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including a commitment to implement the IAEA additional protocols by 2005. They undertook commitments to tighten export control restrictions in the member economies. They took steps to secure international shipping, to enhance travel security, to cooperate in the areas of counterterrorism, and to continue the work that they undertook last year on cooperation to address our health related challenges, including those related to SARS, avian influenza, AIDS and other threats.

In terms of economics, we have a fact sheet on that issue, as well. The leaders, again, reiterated themselves to the WTO -- reiterated their commitment to the WTO process. As you may remember, last year's APEC leaders meeting was important in giving impetus to the WTO negotiations. And in June, the trade ministers played an instrumental role in helping resurrect the WTO negotiations after the failure in Cancun. And today's meeting resulted in a recommitment by the leaders to try to move the WTO negotiations further, in particular with an eye toward advancing significantly those negotiations by the time of the Hong Kong ministerial meeting of the WTO scheduled for the end of 2006.

They also undertook initiatives to deepen Asia Pacific trade by launching the Santiago initiative. Under this initiative, the leaders responded to the call of the APEC Business Advisory Council to undertake additional measures to try to eliminate barriers to regional trade and to undertake measures that, in particular, help address problems that have arisen -- that the business community views as arisen as a result of the inconsistent rules from the proliferation of free trade agreements.

They also undertook to -- a FTA best practices commitment under which countries that are undertaking free trade agreements will now try to apply high standards to those in terms of transparency and the consistency to the rules so that these agreements don't end up being a hindrance to the regional integration -- economic integration.

They undertook commitments to strengthen enforcement of intellectual property protections. And an area in which the President today led the discussions was the issue of anti-corruption and transparency, where they undertook two important -- two important documents have come out of the leaders meeting where the APEC member economies have committed themselves to a number of concrete actions to fight corruption, improve transparency, including through toughening sanctions against corrupt behavior, denying safe haven to corrupt officials and other measures.

With that, I will be happy to answer questions.

Q: You mentioned tightening export controls. Controls on what?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Do you want to talk about the specifics of the IAEA commitments?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The APEC export controls best practices agreed to by ministers lays out a set of best practices for control over items and technologies as associated with weapons of mass destruction. So it's kind of a best practices that will guide APEC economies as they attempt to strengthen their procedures to live up to the Bangkok commitments made last year, one of which was to eliminate the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region.

Q: Could you elaborate, please, as well, on the aviation security measures that were agreed to?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The control guidelines on man-portable air defense systems, the shoulder-launched missiles, is an aviation security measure, as these are a dire threat to commercial aviation. In addition, there is also a program that has been launched by the U.S. and Australia, the Regional Movement Alert System, which is a system to have exchange of lost and stolen passport information, which allows authorities to identify the possible terrorists as they attempt to cross borders -- which is also, as you know, a threat to civil aviation.

Q: What is it that the leaders agreed to do about MANPADS?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: They've agreed to a set of control guidelines, which has to do with control of stockpiles, exports. They've -- these guidelines also lay out that the states will not export this technology to non-state end users. There's a variety of elements which are consistent with the best practices in sort of international control for MANPADS.

Q: But on the WTO, what are the core issues holding up an agreement? And did you make any progress on that here?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, remember, we are just now past the agreement that was reached by the WTO ministers on a framework agreement. The framework now sets the stage for negotiations of the specific terms of a final agreement. So we're really not at a point -- I just -- I think the predicate of your question is as though there's some sort of holdup in the WTO talks, and that's not quite the case.

What is happening, though, is that there is a important WTO ministerial meeting coming up in Hong Kong at the end of this -- at the end of 2005, that is seen as -- by most WTO members as an important action-forcing event, to have the negotiations substantially advanced. And what the leaders did today was to commit themselves and commit their trade ministers to go -- pursue those negotiations with urgency and, in particular, to bring to bear the expertise that APEC economies have in areas such as trade facilitation to help advance those negotiations.

Q: Was North Korea and the Iranian nuclear issue raised in the discussion? If so, can you corroborate the content of the discussion about North Korea and Iranian nuclear issue?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The discussion that the leaders had occurred over a number of sessions yesterday, in particular one session on security issues, and then two sessions that they had today. Some of those sessions were leader only, in which we were -- there were no outside observers. I don't want to characterize what -- in particular, what any leader said on any particular matter, but there was a discussion of the issue of North Korea, and a number of leaders expressed their interest in maintaining cooperation in that area to address the threat.

Q: What about Iran -- the second question? Was there a question of Iran and its nuclear program? And as a corollary to that, I understand that President Bush brought it up in several bilateral meetings yesterday. Why was he bringing up Iran at this point? Because we have a couple big meetings coming up. Was he laying groundwork for a U.S. position?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, yes, the issue of Iraq did come up.

Q: No, Iran.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: What's that?

Q: Iran.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, Iran.

Q: And its nuclear program.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don't remember Iran specifically being kind of an extended topic of discussion, at least in the portions that I was privy to. In terms of what he did or didn't do in the bilats, I wouldn't be able to answer that. I'd leave that to some of my other colleagues.

Q: Can I follow what you just said? In what context did Iraq come up? Was there discussion of the debt relief agreement?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, among the APEC economies that are parties to the Paris Club process, there has been longstanding agreement in terms of the approach that we want to take to the issue of Iraq debt. So it wasn't really an issue that needed to be advanced in any sort of way through this set of meetings today. Although, as you know, there is significant developments occurring right now separately on that front.

But there was, in the context of yesterday's meeting, a discussion of Iraq on the security -- during the course of the security discussions and including with the President, in particular, reiterating the importance of getting it right, in terms of building a free, democratic society in Iraq.

Q: Apart from the official bilaterals listed on the schedule, were there any pull-asides, any informal meetings in hallways, over dinners, et cetera? And I ask because a couple of news agencies reported things like a meeting between the Singapore Prime Minister and the President, and a long conversation between Arroyo and the President.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, Arroyo and the President did sit next to each other over the course of dinner last night, so I imagine over the course of that they did have a discussion. I'm not aware of a separate meeting that they had formally. But, as you know, these discussions can be fluid as leaders go from one session to another. So whether there was a more extended discussion between the two of them, I'm not aware of that.

But there were two pull-asides today, one with Singapore and one with Peru, but I wasn't privy to either conversation, so I can't share anything in that regard.

Q: Just going back to the North Korea issue, you said that it was discussed in some of these sessions and a number of leaders expressed interest in cooperation, but can you fill that out? I mean, were they supportive of the six-party talks? Were they giving -- the five people there who participate in the talks encouragement to reach a settlement? Did they believe this is the way to go?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: As you can imagine, the discussions that the leaders have in the APEC process is between the leaders, themselves. I can characterize in general. All I really want to do is tell you whether the issues came up or not. What, exactly, the nature of the discussions were, what particular interventions a particular leader made is really for that leader to talk about. So I'd rather --

Q: Okay. I'm asking if APEC as a whole, was it -- do they want to see this succeed? I mean, are they cheering it on? Can you give us any idea about that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, when you say, what was APEC doing -- the leaders speak through the Leaders' Declaration. So I think to the extent you want to characterize what APEC as a whole views, you'd have to look at that and see if there's anything there. But there's nothing on North Korea in this year's Leaders' Declaration.

Q: What, specifically, are you talking about or do the leaders have in mind in terms of trade in the Pacific Rim? You say there's talk about easing trade barriers. What, specifically, do the leaders have in mind?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, the trade discussion did cover both the substantive agenda, in terms of what the leaders ultimately agreed to, and the discussion generally -- both -- they talked about a number of things to do to advance regional trade. One area that you may be referring to is that there's been some discussion regarding the proliferation of free trade agreements that have emerged between APEC member economies. And the ABAC, the Business Advisory Council has expressed some concern in their formal comments to the APEC leaders regarding the increasing number of free trade agreements creating conflicting rules or serving as a hindrance somehow to the ultimate goal of having free trade -- expanding freer trade in the region.

And so what the specific steps they undertook, I think some of which my colleague talked about, but they included, for example, making sure that the free trade agreements that APEC member economies undertake are -- follow a certain set of best practices, so they're more transparent, they're comprehensive in nature, they better follow the rules that the WTO has regarding how free trade agreements are supposed to be constituted.

Is there anything you want to add to that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: APEC has been very active in the area of trade facilitation, which is an attempt to overcome transaction costs associated with trade in the region. APEC has a very robust work plan, and leaders have called for enhanced work in this area, including making a major contribution to the WTO negotiations in the area of trade facilitation, but also to have an enhanced dialogue with the business community to address the concerns associated with these transaction costs.

Q: Why were tonight's dinner plans changed? And is it fair to say there is a difference of opinion between Chilean and American security officials as to the nature of how much security there should be?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That's really beyond my brief, so I can't -- I don't have really have any information that would be useful on that issue.

Q: It's supposed to be a working dinner tonight. Do you know what's going to be discussed?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don't know, I don't know. That portion of it is outside the APEC agenda, so I just don't know much about it.

Q: Can you explain how exchange rate liberalization fits into the trade liberalization agenda of APEC?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I would refer that to the Department of Treasury for you to answer.

Q: Can I get one more back here? Was there anything the U.S. wanted in the Leaders' Declaration that didn't make it?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Is that a trick question? (Laughter.)

Q: Never.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, let me answer it this way: We actually are very pleased with how things ultimately turned out. The point that we've tried to make throughout this process is that -- and I think APEC's recent history demonstrates that -- that APEC can be a powerful mechanism of addressing issues, both in the area of security and economy and trade in a way that are mutually reinforcing and complementary. And so I think our take-away from it is that we were very pleased that the APEC leaders and the APEC process were able to come together on a number of very important initiatives that are very, sort of, concrete and will help advance the broader goal of promoting prosperity and security.

MS. BUCHAN: Thank you.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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