The Uruguay Round and regional trade liberalisation: a Japanese view

Abstract

The PECC Trade Policy Forum series have so far been promoting and monitoring the Uruguay Round (UR) negotiations. The first Trade Policy Forum (TPFl) held in San Francisco in March 1986, promoted the launching of the UR and all PECC members, both developed and developing countries, supported it. The second Trade Policy Forum held in Singapore, in January 1988 and the third one in Vancouver in June 1989 monitored the progress of the negotiations and tried to resolve conflicts in negotiations on agriculture and new areas. The latest Forum held in Kuala Lumpur, in August 1990 identified six difficult areas and formulated five areas of informal Pacific consensus among tripartite participants. However, the failure of the Brussels Ministerial meeting in December 1990 to conclude the UR on schedule, brought a new element into our discussion. Practical views on the probable outcome of the UR have prevailed world-wide. Regional Trade Liberalisation (RTL) has emerged as a complementary strategy to the UR. In what follows, I will discuss: • how we evaluate the current state of the UR and how to conclude it successfully, • how we consider the move toward RTL, and how it will be consistent with the UR, and • if the RTL is to complement the UR, in which areas it will be most successful.