./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/L/305
2 July 1999
(99-2742)
Original:  English
MEETING OF APEC MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR TRADE
Auckland, New Zealand
29-30 June 1999
Communication from New Zealand
The following excerpt from the Statement of the Chair of the APEC Trade Ministers meeting
held in Auckland on 29-30 June 1999, has been received from the Permanent Mission of New Zealand
with the request that it be circulated to Members.
_______________
Statement of the Chair
APEC/World Trade Organization
"10. APEC is committed to open regionalism and supports the multilateral trading system.
Ministers noted the mutually reinforcing role of the goals of both APEC and WTO.  Ministers
recognized the importance of this area of APEC's work to the region's business community,
particularly as a response to protectionist pressures in the region.
11. Ministers agreed on the importance of ensuring full implementation of existing WTO
agreements.  Ministers encouraged acceleration of outstanding accession negotiations in accordance
with WTO rules and based on commercially viable market access commitments with a view to
achieving a universality of WTO membership.
12. Ministers recalled the particular importance which Leaders in Kuala Lumpur attached to early
progress being made on broad-based multilateral negotiations in the WTO, achieving an overall
balance of interests of all Members.  Ministers expressed satisfaction with the preparations in the
WTO of the agenda for the Third WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle.  They noted that a number ofproposals have been tabled and agreed that APEC ec onomies should take the lead in ensuring that all
proposals are put on the table, desirably by the end of July.  They agreed on the need for an
intensification of activity in Geneva in the final phase of preparations for the Seattle Ministerial and
endorsed calls for work to begin on drafting the Seattle Ministerial Declaration during August.  They
agreed that the Seattle Ministerial Declaration should contain agreement on both the subject matter fornegotiations and on the modalities for progressing negotiations.  They also agreed that further
consideration should be given to the possibility of specific decisions to support the launch at Seattle of
such broad-based negotiations.WT/L/305
Page 2
13. Ministers agreed that the negotiation agenda should be broader than that already specified in
the built-in agenda principally on agriculture and services, and that these areas and negotiations on
industrial (non-agricultural) tariffs should serve as an integral part of the forthcoming negotiations.
Ministers agreed that the negotiations should be concluded within three years.
14. Ministers further agreed on the need to ensure that the concerns of developing economies,
including the least-developed economies, are addressed in any new WTO negotiations.  They noted
that this was something to which APEC, with its broad membership and unique approach to trade and
investment liberalization, is well placed to contribute.  Ministers instructed officials to consider the
concerns of developing economies and least-developed economies together with other possible issues
for inclusion on the agenda for the Seattle WTO Ministerial Meeting including transparency in
government  procurement, electronic commerce, and trade facilitation and to report to Ministers attheir September meeting.
15. Pursuant to their agreement in Kuala Lumpur on the front nine EVSL sectors, Ministers of
participating economies emphasized the importance of the Accelerated Tariff Liberalization (ATL)
initiative in providing impetus to the wider negotiation on industrial (non-agricultural) tariffs whichthey agreed should be launched at Seattle.  They welcomed progress in the initiative since November,
including the support it had received from a number of non-APEC WTO Members and instructed
officials to continue to promote the initiative, endeavouring to conclude agreement in the WTO in
1999.  They also agreed that participating economies should engage again with WTO Members in
July on their reaction to the initiative and on how it will tie into the launch, conduct, and outcome of
any new WTO negotiations.
16. Ministers of participating economies noted the growing support for new WTO negotiations on
industrial tariffs, and agreed that the atmosphere in the WTO was now positive for the negotiation in
the WTO of the tariff elements of the remaining six EVSL sectors (Early Voluntary SectoralLiberalization) sectors - automotive (no tariff element), civil aircraft, fertilizers, food, oilseeds, and
rubber.  In this regard, they recalled the instructio ns received from Leaders in Vancouver to pursue an
ongoing programme of voluntary liberalization, and th eir intention that APEC continue to act as a
catalyst for promoting trade and investment liberalization globally, and in Kuala Lumpur to further
advance work on the remaining six EVSL sectors.
17. Ministers of participating economies therefore resolved that the tariff elements of the
remaining six EVSL sectors should be negotiated in the WTO during the course of the negotiations on
agriculture already mandated in the WTO under the BIA, and the negotiations on industrial
(non-agricultural) tariffs which they agree should be launched at the Third WTO Ministerial Meeting.
They took note of the efforts made by participa ting APEC economies to deve lop a framework for the
reduction or elimination of tariffs in these sectors within an expedited time-frame, in accordance withthe principle of flexibility, and called upon the WTO to take these efforts into account in the
upcoming WTO negotiations.
18. APEC's EVSL initiative has always been about more than tariff liberalization.  Ministers
welcomed progress made on implementing the non-tariff measure, facilitation and Ecotech elementsagreed at Kuala Lumpur and the further initiatives developed since then, a list of which is attached.
Ministers emphasized the need to continue implementation of all three elements and requested that
officials report in September on further deliverables in this area."
__________