CNN.com - APEC set to tackle big agenda - Nov 14, 2005APEC set to tackle big agenda

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) -- Leaders of economies around the Pacific Rim gather this week for a meeting that has evolved from an economic talk-shop into a forum for problems as wide-ranging as bird flu, trade and terrorism.

The 21 leaders meeting Friday and Saturday in Busan, a port city about 420 kilometers (260 miles) southeast of South Korea's capital Seoul will feature two days of multilateral meetings but also the inevitable flurry of two-way talks.

The main issues on the agenda are averting a breakdown in the Doha round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at talks due in mid-December and coming up with measures to work together if bird flu becomes a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

Although not on the agenda, the status of international efforts to end the nuclear program of South Korea's neighbor to the north -- and what that means for the region's stability -- will overshadow all.

And many will closely watch how Japan's prime minister is received in the group, which includes many victims of Japan's aggression in World War Two. Junichiro Koizumi has angered many in the region by visits to a Tokyo war shrine that some say glorifies Japan's militaristic past.

U.S. President George W. Bush, coming to the meeting as part of an Asian trip that includes China, Mongolia and Japan, will want to keep his war on terror high on the agenda, analysts said.

Indeed, Bush was the one to put terrorism squarely on APEC's plate at the 2001 summit in Shanghai soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, altering the nature of the forum, perhaps forever.

"It (the meeting) has ... taken on a much more political slant in recent years since September 11. It has become a much more mature forum," said Ralph Cossa, head of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum CSIS think-tank.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum opened officially at the weekend and will bring foreign ministers together in the middle of the week. But the highlight is the summit.

This being South Korea where demonstrating is an art form, the forum will not take place without its detractors.

As many as 20,000 protesters carrying placards saying "No Bush visit" joined a labor union-organized protest against the summit in Seoul on Sunday and South Korean rice farmers have pledged to hold rallies against freeing up farm trade.

Anti-globalization groups and activists plan to bring 100,000 people together in Busan on Friday, South Korean media reported.

Trade high on agenda
The meeting will be the last major global gathering ahead of next month's WTO talks in Hong Kong, where trading powers had hoped to agree on a blueprint for the so-called Doha free trade round that could be agreed by the end of 2006.

But progress towards a deal, which could inject new zest into world economic growth, has faltered due to Europe's resistance to liberalizing its heavily protected farm market and by developing nations' reluctance to cut industrial tarrifs.

APEC's economies account for 57 percent of world gross domestic product, 45.8 percent of world trade volume and 44.8 percent of the world's population, organizers say.

The leaders are expected to use that weight to call for progress towards a Doha deal, but some analysts say it may be too little too late, and point out the key to progress in the round rests with the European Union, which does not take part in APEC.

"Regional trade development has moved beyond APEC's orbit and it is time for APEC to stop pretending," APEC experts Allan Gyngell and Malcolm Cook wrote in a paper for Australia's Lowy Institute.

While APEC may have troubles in implementing its lofty trade goals, talking and coordinating are what it does best, which is essential in supporting public health policy on a global level where data must be shared openly and quickly, analysts said.

APEC officials said on Monday funding from the United States and Australia of about $2 million for projects to mitigate the economic impact of a pandemic would be announced at the summit.

"We need to consider how a pandemic could impede economic growth," Mario Ignacio Artaza, chairman of APEC's Budget and Management Committee, told reporters. "It's a priority issue for our leaders when they meet."

The leaders will pledge to share information on bird flu as well as data on outbreaks in migratory birds, according to a draft of the leaders' bird flu initiative obtained by Reuters.

Bush will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of the region's leading Muslim nations, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Malaysia is host to a new East Asian Summit scheduled for December that pointedly does not include the United States.

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