Does APEC Merely Add to Global Warming?
Date: 10-Sep-07
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Bill Tarrant
Host Australia shelled out A$300 million (US$250 million) to
accommodate the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum in Sydney, whose disgruntled residents were
subjected to the biggest security operation in the country's
history.
But leaders did come bearing gifts for Prime Minister John
Howard, who is widely expected to call an election this week --
a US$45 billion gas export deal with China, uranium sales to
Russia, top-secret military technology from the United States.
Much to the chagrin of green groups, non-environmentalist
Howard burnished his legacy with a "Sydney Declaration",
signing up APEC members to an "aspirational target" for cutting
greenhouse gases. It's voluntary and non-binding, so no worries
for APEC, which includes some of the world's biggest polluters.
Green groups immediately dismissed the "Sydney distraction"
as so much hot air adding to the warming of the globe.
DECISION-MAKING BODY
Critics say APEC has lost its focus on economics and trade
by meandering into the fields of security and now the
environment.
But some analysts say that may be the price of its success.
"APEC is more important now than ever, and though its role
in some realms remains modest -- security is the most glaring
example -- in other areas it is emerging as the global
decision-making body," the security analysis Web site
Stratfor.com said.
"APEC's growing power is most clearly on display when it
tackles issues such as climate change and consumer product
safety."
So, when the APEC leaders, whose countries account for more
than half of global trade, came out on Sunday with a strong
endorsement of compromises on farm subsidies and industrial
tariffs that negotiators are working on in Geneva, it must have
been music to World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy's
ears.
For the past two decades, APEC has been quietly crafting
some of the most important rules for global commerce. At the
Sydney meeting it completed three more chapters for a model
free trade agreement that can be rolled out anywhere along the
Pacific rim.
APEC also offers an unparalleled public relations platform
to push pet projects and causes -- and to network like crazy.
US President George W. Bush, who stopped off in Iraq on
his way to Sydney, took every opportunity to defend the
unpopular war. And to bolster the election fortunes of Howard,
one of the most steadfast supporters of the war.
"They refer to the Prime Minister around here as a
battler," Bush said this week. "I know why: he's courageous,
he's wise, he's determined."
Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped off in Jakarta on
the way to APEC to seal a US$1 billion arms deal with Indonesia
by way of advertising that Russia is back in the geopolitical
game in Asia, after taking a long sabbatical from the Cold War.
"The main outcome of the summit is that Russia has
significantly upgraded its status in the grouping and in the
region," a senior diplomat in the Russian delegation said.
But China's Hu Jintao kept a relatively low profile,
belying predictions that Beijing is big-footing APEC, founded
in Canberra in 1989 with backing from the United States to push
an Asia-Pacific free trade agenda.
Hu issued the usual stern warnings about Taiwan's leanings
toward independence.
But mostly he seemed keen to reassure his Asia-Pacific
neighbours that Beijing, grappling with a series of product
recalls ranging from toys to toothpaste, took product safety
"very seriously".
China's foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing did not
have any larger ambitions in APEC.
"On this issue, China definitely does not seek any kind of
an important role, or to gain some kind of a leadership
position," spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Sydney.
Howard had enthused that APEC would make Australia "the
centre of the uni
