| Home > APSC 1998 | |
Anti-APEC conference scheduled for New Zealand
Green Left Weekly - May 6, 1998
Murray Addison – The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, APEC, is holding its 1999 summit meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, on September 13. Democratic rights activists are planning a counter conference to highlight APEC's undemocratic and anti-people agenda.
Matt Robson, New Zealand Alliance MP and foreign affairs spokesperson, urged participants at the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference to support the initiative.
Heads of state of the 18 members of APEC, including US President Bill Clinton, as well as those from Japan, China, Canada, Chile, Australia and Indonesia, will attend the APEC meeting.
Described in 1994 as a "regional consultative mechanism", APEC was set up in 1991 to promote "more open trade, greater economic cooperation, investment expansion and a stronger multilateral trading system".
In reality, like other trade and investment liberalisation institutions, APEC is another method by which governments of developed capitalist countries are able to increase their exploitation of less developed nations' economies.
When Australian Labor PM Bob Hawke first proposed APEC, the US was keen, believing it would help prevent an exclusive Asian trade bloc from consolidating around Japan.
The removal of trade barriers has a devastating impact on less developed countries. For example, agricultural imports will force small farmers in Asia and Latin America to "compete" with the highly mechanised and subsidised North American producers - an impossibility.
A major part of APEC's agenda is to "liberalise" trade and investment. There has already been agreement to remove all barriers to trade and investment by the year 2020. This neo-liberal rhetoric about "free trade" is simply cover for a move to increase the exploitation of the Third World.
"Trade liberalisation" really refers to the removal of trade barriers to the free movement of goods and services from capitalist countries. Amongst these are tariffs on imports and non-tariff barriers, such as quotas or quality rules designed to limit or exclude imports, which might threaten domestic industries. The result favours the ruling class of rich countries. As investors and capital are able to move more freely between countries, the balance of power between them and labour is altered dramatically in favour of the former.
The adverse effect on the working class can be seen in the US-Mexico situation. Under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a number of US companies have moved their operations across the boarder, where labour is cheap and working conditions are appalling.
APEC describes itself as a "community of economies" and takes no responsibility for the social, political or cultural consequences of the decisions its members make. This allows APEC to operate in a totally anti-democratic and unaccountable way.
Since APEC's formation in 1991, activists have staged a number of counter-conferences: Indonesia in 1994, Japan in 1995, Philippines in 1996 and Canada in 1997.
The Japan protest declaration rejected "the basic philosophy, framework and assumptions of the model of free market and trade liberalisation", stating, "This model does not lead to freedom; it negates the developmental and democratic aspirations of the people".
The statement continued: "The form of indiscriminate, unregulated economic growth and trade which APEC advocates, delivers the opposite of this... its consequences are socially unjust and economically unsustainable; it imposes irreversible social and economic costs; and it enables governments to abdicate their responsibilities to their citizens and leave them at the mercy of transnational corporations and international financial institutions which are accountable to no one."
Counter-conferences are important to highlight the real impact of trade liberalisation on the majority of the region's inhabitants.
The next APEC summit will be held in Malaysia in November 1998. In 1999, it is the New Zealand government's turn to play host. The Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC Monitoring Group was formed in 1994 to monitor APEC's policies and their effect on the people of New Zealand. Group members have attended all the counter-APEC forums.
Along with the monitoring group, a number of other organisations have come together, including political parties, trade unions, aid organisations, community groups, churches, solidarity groups and student organisations to highlight the adverse effects of APEC's policies on the majority of people in the region.
To get involved, contact Robert Reid, telephone 64 4 384 8963, e-mail <rreid@actrix.gen.nz> or Murray Addison, PO Box 6392 Wellesley St, Auckland, NZ, telephone 64 9 357 6789, e-mail <murray@legal.co.nz>.