[Kabar-indonesia] 5 reports: EU Urges Asia on Labor Rights, Climate Change [+G20]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

5 reports: 

- EU Urges Asia on Labor Rights, Climate Change

- Bloomberg: EU Seeks Trade Accords 
  With China, Korea as WTO Talks Stumble 

- Asia-Europe summit tackles trade, security 
  and climate change

- G20 Trade Mins Look For Breakthrough 
  On Stalled Talks

- Asia-Europe Summit Focuses on Trade

EU Urges Asia on Labor Rights, Climate Change

By William Schomberg and Chris Buckley

HELSINKI, Sept. 10 (Reuters) - Europe pressed Asia on Sunday to address 
concerns about worker rights abuses as it grows into an economic powerhouse 
and said the region must take a bigger role in tackling global climate change.

European Union and Asian leaders from countries accounting for half of the 
world's economy kicked off a two-day summit in Helsinki aimed at deepening their 
massive trade and investment links and strengthening ties in a host of other 
areas.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said globalization had 
lifted millions out of poverty in developing countries. But some "negative 
effects" had to be managed.

"That is why it is important to involve our partners in Asia, to explain that 
we are in favor of liberalization of course. But we want respect for certain 
levels of decency in work, a minimum of social rights and guarantees," he said.

European industry is facing stiff competition from cheaper Asian 
manufacturers, raising concerns not only about loss of jobs and output in the EU but also 
about labor and environmental standards in the booming Asian economies.

Barroso also called for "effective action" to help cut emissions of 
greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"If Europe alone makes all the effort in the fight against climate change, it 
will be a problem," he told reporters during a break in meetings.

A Japanese government official said he saw no reason to stand against 
Europe's environmental wake-up call.

"Climate change and energy issues are closely linked to each other, and 
therefore there is no escape for any country and no country should be treated as an 
exception," the official said.

Leaders of emerging Asian countries gave climate change conspicuously short 
shrift in speeches at the start of the informal summit.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao instead called for Europe to share technology to 
reduce consumption of power.

China has set itself a goal of boosting energy efficiency by 20 percent by 
the end of the decade. But it and other big developing countries have rejected 
mandatory caps on emissions, saying the problem lies with the developed 
countries.

EU officials want the Helsinki summit to bolster United Nations talks on how 
to control emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

On Saturday, the EU and China agreed to launch wide-ranging talks to underpin 
their 200 billion euro ($254 billion) trade relationship on a 
semi-independent basis from talks on other more sensitive issues, such as human rights and 
the environment.

RIGHTS

At the summit, the EU pressed military-run Myanmar to improve its human 
rights record.

"We have asked them to engage and start working for a national dialogue and 
also to free (opposition leader) Aung San Suu Kyi, to free political 
prisoners," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Reuters.

But China -- whose own human rights standards have come under a harsh 
spotlight amid a crackdown on activists -- believes Myanmar's rights record is a 
domestic matter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told Reuters.

Leaders also discussed security issues, chief among them the nuclear programs 
of North Korea and Iran.

According to a government official, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi 
said North Korea and the situation in the Middle East are issues that concern 
both Asia and Europe.

While central Helsinki was snarled on Saturday by widespread protests against 
the summit, with some 130 arrests, Sunday's comparatively small 
demonstrations went off peacefully.

ASEM groups EU countries with the 10-member Association of South East Asian 
Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea.

Asian countries proposed India, Pakistan and Mongolia to join the forum, 
which meets every two years. Bulgaria and Romania, which are due to join the EU 
next year or in 2008, are also expected to be admitted.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, Rex Merrifield and Teruaki Ueno)

($1=.7864 Euro)

----------------------------------

EU Seeks Trade Accords With China, Korea as WTO Talks Stumble 

By Simon Kennedy and Sandrine Rastello

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union said it will seek bilateral trade 
deals with China and Korea, exploring new ways of conquering foreign markets as 
talks over a global trade pact flounder. 

Negotiations over a broader World Trade Organization accord were suspended in 
July as the EU and U.S. accused each other of protecting their agricultural 
markets. 

``We are now at a crucial point in time when we're considering how to develop 
regional trade agreements,'' European Commission President Jose Barroso told 
reporters in Helsinki after meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and 
Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun. 

China's 200 billion-euro ($255 billion) trade relationship with the EU is 
weakened by disputes including European allegations that China is exporting 
cut-price shoes and failing to clamp down on the counterfeiting of brand-name 
products. 

Wen, on his second visit to Europe in nine months, was rebuffed in his bid 
for the EU to recognize his country as a market economy. Such status could lead 
to lower duties on China in trade disputes with the EU. 

``China and the European Union have enjoyed mutually beneficial economic ties 
and trade,'' Wen said. Greater trade ``will benefit both sides.'' 

Arms Embargo 

The EU also stood by an embargo on weapons sales to China that was imposed 
after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators. A 
statement didn't go beyond repeating the EU's ``willingness'' to rethink the 
embargo once China improves its human-rights record. 

A French-led move to end the embargo was blocked by Britain and Germany last 
year after U.S. President George W. Bush warned that European weapons sales to 
China would upset the military balance on the Pacific rim. 

Wen appealed for the EU to drop the ban, calling on the bloc's leaders ``to 
exercise vision, to display farsightedness and courage in handling some of the 
differences between China and the European Union.'' 

Market Mechanism 

Barroso said China would win market economy status when it addressed 
weaknesses such as too much state influence and immature financial markets. ``Once the 
criteria are fulfilled the European Commission will not wait a day longer to 
grant market economy status to China,'' he said. 

The Chinese government has been pressing the EU for years to give the 
country, which joined the WTO in 2001, market economy rank. 

The designation would require the EU to use cost figures from Chinese 
exporters when determining if goods are being ``dumped,'' or sold in Europe at below 
Chinese domestic prices or below the cost of production. Now, the EU uses data 
from other countries in deciding to slap anti-dumping duties on Chinese 
exports. 

The EU has anti-dumping measures in force against more than three dozen 
Chinese products including bicycles, lamps and polyester fibers. It is now weighing 
whether to impose five-year duties on shoe imports from China. 

The EU identified Korea as a ``key partner'' and a statement between the two 
sides said exploratory talks between the EU and Korea will ``verify their 
common level of ambition and readiness to examine the feasibility of a 
comprehensive'' agreement. 

At the WTO level, trade ministers from the U.S., Brazil, India and the EU 
meet in Rio de Janeiro today to try to revive the so-called Doha round. 

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said regional trade pacts 
were no substitute for multilateral agreements and urged the WTO talks to be 
revived in the interest of boosting economic growth. 

Bilateral deals are ``complementary not contradictory'' to multilateral 
agreements, Trichet said in Helsinki. ``We continue to hope it will be possible for 
the multilateral negotiations to take place.'' 

-----------------------------------

Agence France-Presse
September 10, 2006

Asia-Europe summit tackles trade, security and climate change
 
Asian leaders, buoyed by their region's rapidly increasing economic and 
political clout, tackled issues ranging from trade to global warming with their 
European counterparts at a Helsinki summit.

The 25-nation European Union, both curious and cautious about Asia's growing 
role in world affairs, hosted leaders from China, Korea, Japan and the 10 
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), held every two years, rarely produces any 
concrete decisions but officials promised that a "strong message" on climate 
change would be included in the gathering's final statement on Monday.

"The basic idea is to find a platform for work after 2012," the target date 
for the UN's Kyoto Protocol on reducing the world's greenhouse gas emissions, 
said a senior official from Finland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The Finnish presidency kicked off the two-day summit Sunday by saying it had 
pressed Myanmar to improve its human rights and democracy record.

Despite criticism from human rights groups, Finland made an exception to an 
EU visa ban on officials from Myanmar's military junta so that Foreign Minister 
U Nyan Win could attend the ASEM meeting.

As leaders arrived Saturday on the eve of the summit, around 100 protestors 
were arrested after they clashed with riot police in central Helsinki at a 
demonstration against the presence of leaders from China and Myanmar.

Around 2,000 anti-globalisation protestors had held a largely peaceful 
demonstration earlier in the day.

The stalled WTO talks on liberalising global trade must urgently be resumed, 
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told ASEM delegates on 
Sunday.

Five years of talks at the World Trade Organization ground to an acrimonious 
halt in July.

"We must resume the round without delay," Barroso said. "Other trade 
arrangements between regions and countries must be complementary to the multilateral 
trading system."

Bilateral trade deals between the EU and ASEAN states and between Europe and 
South Korea were also on the agenda at the Helsinki summit.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in a speech to formally open the talks 
reminded his listeners that "today ASEM partners represent 40 percent of the 
world's population, 50 percent of global GDP and 60 percent of world trade".

But the balance of trade is rapidly moving in Asia's favour, in particular 
due to the meteoric economic rise of China. EU leaders are also keen to rival 
powerful US influence in a region where a few decades ago several European 
states possessed colonies. 

Europe would also like to get China, which has a permanent seat on the UN 
Security Council, on its side on issues such as Iran's nuclear programme.

Security issues ranging from North Korea's missiles and Iran's atomic 
ambitions to ensuring a steady supply of energy to fuel the two regions' economies, 
were also on the agenda here.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun was expected to use the summit as an 
opportunity to sell his idea of multilateral security system for northeast Asia.

He was also expected to lay out Seoul's stance on North Korea's nuclear 
policy and recent missile tests.

Equally concerned about North Korea's missile programme, Japanese Prime 
Minister Junichiro Koizumi has lobbied the Finnish premier to write concerns over 
Pyonyang's missile development into his chairman's statement at the summit's 
conclusion.

Relations between Koizumi and his Chinese and South Korean counterparts have 
been frosty lately because of the Japanese premier's repeated visits to a war 
shrine in Tokyo which honours top World War II war criminals among its dead.

But they appeared to thaw a little when Koizumi greeted his counterparts here 
as they gathered for the opening ceremony of the meeting that this year 
celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Five more countries -- India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Bulgaria and Romania -- 
were on Sunday invited to join the ASEM club.

---------------------------------------

G20 Trade Mins Look For Breakthrough On Stalled Talks

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 10 (AP)--Developing nations were calling on rich 
countries to restart global trade talks, as trade representatives from United 
States, Europe and Japan joined a meeting of ministers from emerging economies. 

The two-day gathering of the Group of 20 developing nations in Rio marks the 
first time international trade officials have met since the Doha Round of 
World Trade Organization talks stalled in July over the question of rich nations' 
subsidies for agriculture. 

Developing nations are warning that the suspension of negotiations not only 
threatens the current round of discussions but also the multilateral trading 
system itself. 

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab on Sunday said President George W. 
Bush hasn't given up on the Doha Round. 

"President Bush is committed to a successful outcome for the Doha Round and 
we will do what it takes," Schwab said. "If there is the potential for a 
successful Round we will find it." 

On Saturday, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said successful trade 
negotiations would help preserve international order and have implications in the 
fight against terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear contraband and 
organized crime. 

"It's not just trade that's at stake, but the whole world order," Amorim said 
at the end of a day of meetings between G-20 ministers. 

On Sunday, the ministers from developing countries planned to meet with 
Schwab, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, WTO chief Pascal Lamy and Japanese 
Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa. 

But few here believe much progress is possible, at least before U.S. 
congressional elections in November. 

Schwab denied the talks hinged on the Nov. 7 vote. 

"Our Congressional election is really not going have an impact on this round, 
we always knew that if we had a Doha Round agreement, the next Congress would 
be the one dealing with it," she said. "My guess is we've got several months 
ahead of where we need to find out: Is there a convergence between the key 
players?" 

G-20 ministers meet again at the end of October or beginning of November in 
Geneva. 

"It will be a meeting where we can reflect on the whole process," Amorim 
said. 

Developing nations are demanding greater market access for their agricultural 
products while developed nations complain of barriers in emerging markets for 
their goods and services. 

The G-20 issued a statement Saturday indicating developing nations were 
unlikely to back off their demands that developed nations do away with subsidies 
and tariff barriers for their farm products. 

"Most of the world's poor make their living out of agriculture. Their 
livelihood and standards of living are seriously jeopardized by subsidies and 
market-access barriers prevailing in international agricultural trade," the group 
said in the statement. 

Powerful farm lobbies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, however, strongly oppose 
an end to subsidies, a move they fear would leave them unable to compete with 
the flood of cheap imports. 

The entire process is rapidly running out of time because Bush's authority to 
"fast track" the trade deal - enabling U.S. envoys to negotiate an agreement 
that can be submitted to Congress for a yes-or-no vote without amendments - 
runs out in mid-2007. 

Days after the G-20 meeting, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 
will host the heads of states of India and South Africa in Brasilia to discuss 
strengthening economic links between those countries and South America's 
Mercosur bloc - made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. 

The G-20 was formed in 2003 with Brazil as one of its leading member nations. 
The other members are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, the 
Philippines, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, 
South Africa, Thailand, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. 

----------------------------------------

Associated Press
September 10, 2006 

Asia-Europe Summit 
Focuses on Trade

HELSINKI, Finland -- Leaders from 38 European and Asian countries began two 
days of economic and political talks Sunday, hoping to reaffirm their 
decade-old goal of providing a counterbalance to U.S. clout in Asia.

The leaders of ASEM, or Asia-Europe Meeting, will focus on improving trade 
relations and possibly launching a drive for bilateral, free trade accords, 
after negotiations for a global agreement collapsed in July amid acrimony over 
complex market access and farm subsidies issues.

Before the meeting, officials said the two sides had agreed to admit India, 
Pakistan and Mongolia into the club. The EU says each time it admits new 
members -- as it did in 2004 when Cyprus, Malta and eight East European nations 
joined -- they must automatically join the Asia-Europe partnership. Asians fear 
this automatic ASEM membership gives Europeans too big a say.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso suggested the EU was ready 
to pursue a free trade agreement with South Korea, now that WTO negotiations 
have stalled. The EU has strong trade ties with Japan, China and South Korea, 
the three Asian economic powers. In the past decade, EU trade with Japan and 
South Korea grew by double digit figures, while trade with China has skyrocketed.

EU exports to China have more than doubled to €48 billion ($61.5 billion), 
and imports have more than tripled €127 billion between 1995 and 2004. But 
Europe's trade with Southeast Asia, which comprises the majority of Asia's ASEM 
members, has been stagnant. Over the past 10 years, Southeast Asia's share of all 
EU exports fell by 1.2%, and European investment in the region has declined.

The summit will debate globalization, security threats, energy, cultural ties 
and competitiveness. A declaration on climate change is planned as well. 
North Korea and Iran nuclear ambitions will likely dominate political discussions.

Before the Helsinki summit, the European Union met with the leaders of South 
Korea and China, who are major trade partners for the Europeans and, with 
Japan, are key players in efforts to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear 
arms. 

The Europeans want Asian governments -- notably in China and Southeast Asia 
-- to do more to protect human rights, but the Asians say the issue has no 
place in economic and trade discussions, and are internal matters of those states.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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