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                                                                  November-december 2003

Chili

President Ricardo E. Lagos

“ The strength of good commercial agreements “

Chile assumes the task of organizing APEC 2004 with enthusiasm, with realism on the world economy and with a vision of the future. APEC is a coordination forum whose main goal is to promote free trade and to facilitate the increasing exchange among its members. The question is: to what extent do the conditions of the world trade and the globalization allow us to advance towards those goals?

If we look on what happened in Cancun, there are reasons to feel frustrated. Nevertheless, the debate held in Bangkok summons us to unlock the obstacles which are tying up the WTO. And this is a good sign of what APEC can do for itself and for the rest of the world. This is a unique forum.

Four members of G-8 are here. Several countries of the Cairns Group are seated in this table. The strength of the emerging economies meet in this forum. Strong agricultural economies, as well as industrialized ones and those of high technological development are part of APEC.

Because our experiences and views are diverse, and because there are those who come from one and from the other sides of the Pacific, it provides us with an opportunity to debate the world trade agenda from the particularity of each economy. It would be a paramount mistake to regard the Doha agenda as finished. Our task must be to contribute from APEC to restart multilateral negotiations that make free trade possible, with clear rules and opportunities for all.

In APEC we have clear goals. We have recognized the strength of bilateral, trilateral or other kind of Agreements that allow us to advance in our objectives. In receiving in our hands the APEC coordination, we have the opportunity to move forward within this forum that which until now has not been possible in the WTO.

The Pacific Ocean is poised to become the great promoting pole of the world economy in the 21st century. Chile, with more than 4,000 kilometres of coast in the other side of this large ocean, sets itself out to contribute its own share during APEC 2003.

Chile's President Ricardo Lagos said countries needed to make sure that globalization benefits reached various sectors of their people, so no people would be left out from the process.  "If we want to compete successfully in the world, we have to strengthen our socio-economic policies," he said.

He said market mechanism alone would not ensure equal distribution of economic growth, but the government needs to enforce policies that under-privileged sectors of the society benefited from the economic development as well.  He said social cohesion is important for countries as they move along the globalization process.

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