APEC seeks to strengthen food and product safety
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific countries will try to develop a more robust approach to strengthening food and product safety standards in the region, according to a draft APEC declaration obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
The measure is among a number of initiatives outlined in a declaration prepared for Wednesday's opening meeting of trade and foreign ministers from 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum economies ahead of their leaders' summit at the weekend.
"We agreed on the need to develop a more robust approach to strengthening food and consumer product safety standards and practices in the region, using scientific risk-based approaches, and without necessarily compromising trade," the draft declaration says.
APEC member China has been battling a torrent of warnings and recalls abroad that have shaken international markets' confidence in the "made-in-China" label on products ranging from toothpaste and toys to food and tires.
Toymaker Mattel Inc on Tuesday announced a third recall of Chinese-made toys, saying it would take back more than 800,000 units globally with "impermissible" levels of lead.
The latest recall involves three Fisher-Price toy models and eight Barbie brand playsets. No Barbie dolls were included.
Mattel in the past five weeks already had announced two recalls of millions of Chinese toys due to excessive amounts of lead paint and other dangers.
The food and product safety measure is among a number of initiatives APEC is undertaking to enhance security in the region, including potential threats from terrorism, drugs and contaminated products, pandemics and the consequences of natural disasters.
The declaration notes that security is essential to economic growth and, in cooperating on that front, APEC members will "remain closely attuned to the needs of business".
DELIBERATE CONTAMINATION
APEC has begun work on a recovery program to revive trade in the event of a terrorist attack and a set of principles "to help protect the food supply against deliberate contamination".
The draft declaration calls for harmonizing security standards to reduce transaction costs for businesses across the region.
The draft declaration says that energy security can best be met through "efficient energy markets, characterized by free and open trade, secure and transparent frameworks for investment, clear price signals, market transparency, good governance and effective competition".
On trade, APEC will be focusing this year on "behind the border issues", including structural reform, competition policy, strengthening capital markets, combating corruption, promoting good governance, and a more certain legal and regulatory climate.
The draft declaration, however, gives short shrift to a U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.
Senior officials say the group will try to come up with "model measures" that can be standardized for the dozens of bilateral and regional free-trade agreements now in force or under negotiation in the region.
An Asia-Pacific free-trade area was viewed as a fall-back option should the current Doha round of world trade talks fail completely.
APEC's economies -- which include the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- account for nearly half of global trade and 56 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
APEC leaders will issue a separate declaration on Sunday calling on World Trade Organization members to agree to move to a "final phase" of a global trade agreement.
