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Friday, September 30, 2005
Asian oil stockpile planned, as prices rise
VIENTIANE — Ministers from 13 Asian countries pledged yesterday to shore up energy security, in the wake of record oil prices, and said they would work towards sealing a world free trade agreement in Hong Kong later this year.
The trade and economic ministers from the 10-nation Asean bloc plus China, Japan and South Korea also raised the prospect of an East Asian oil stockpile as a means of combatting future oil price shocks.
“The ministers shared a common concern at the soaring oil price on the recovering Asian economy and its negative effects on economic growth,” they said in a statement.
Other proposals included a joint impact study with agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) on the negative economic impact of high oil prices, and energy efficiency and diversification measures.
Japan, the only country in the region to already have its own oil stockpile, said it was taking seriously the threat posed to energy security by record costs and potential supply disruptions.
The chief of the Japanese delegation, Hachiro Okonogi, told journalists the process of how to build a stockpile — with prices hovering around US$65 a barrel — and where, would now be referred to a working level
committee.
“This is a matter that we need to discuss further,” he said.
Oil and the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference to be held in Hong Kong this December dominated talks with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and its three, economically powerful, northern neighbors.
Issues concerning economic integration, which has witnessed China and Japan vying for influence in Southeast Asia, appeared to have been relegated down the agenda for the time being.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyen-Chong said that given recent global trade developments, there was “a commitment to work together to ensure successful outcomes” at the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference.
Asked whether he believed the Doha agreement would be implemented, he told AFP: “I am cautiously optimistic that it will.”
The ministerial meeting of 148 WTO members on Dec. 13-18 is meant to set the seal on four years of talks launched in the Qatari capital Doha that aim to deliver a comprehensive treaty for free trade by 2006.
The talks ran into a deep impasse in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun in 2003, mainly owing to differences over farm trade and market access for services, and negotiators have been struggling since to get them back on track.
The WTO’s failure to hammer out an interim agreement in July has prompted speculation that the December meeting was doomed to failure.
However, the United States, European Union and a handful of other key players from the WTO are to meet next month in Switzerland to try to keep talks on a treaty liberalizing global commerce going.
Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and is aiming to create a fully integrated economic community by 2020. (AFP)
(September 30, 2005 issue)
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