ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
PRESIDENT CLINTON did some personal lobbying to persuade members to commit to these reductions by 2000.
Eighteen Pacific Rim governments Monday endorsed sweeping tariff reductions by 2000 in the $1 trillion ``information technology'' industry and agreed to push forward with voluntary efforts to liberalize trade and investment opportunities in the region.
The commitment on tariff reductions came only after some carefully targeted personal lobbying by President Clinton here at the fourth summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, known as APEC. The forum's foreign ministers agreed to a similar measure Saturday but stopped short of committing to the crucial 2000 deadline.
The endorsement on cuts, made by the leaders of Pacific Rim governments whose economies account for about four-fifths of the industry's global trade, calls for the complete elimination of duties on such products as computers and telecommunications equipment. The industry is one of America's strongest export sectors - one that supports nearly 2 million jobs nationwide.
The United States, which pushed hard for Monday's result, hopes to use the commitment to win an even bigger prize in three weeks: adoption of an Information Technology Agreement containing similar language by representatives of the 123-member World Trade Organization scheduled to meet next month in Singapore.
Formal agreement in Singapore would start the elimination of these tariffs globally, an action that the U.S. Trade Representative's Office estimated would give U.S. producers an extra $1 billion annually either to absorb as profits or pass on to consumers in the form of lower prices.
``APEC's endorsement of this Information Technology Agreement is a big deal,'' Clinton said in a brief meeting with the U.S. Embassy staff in Manila after the summit. ``These products are to the 21st century what highways and railroads were to the 19th century. They are at the core of America's competitiveness.''
The sector includes an array of products ranging from microchips and computers to fiber-optic telephone cables. The United States last year exported more than $75 billion in information technology products.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP President Clinton receives a gift from Bangkokby CNBGovernor Bhichit Rattanakul (right) shortly after his arrival Monday
in Bangkok. Clinton is the first United States president to pay a
state visit to Thailand since Richard Nixon in 1969.