Concern in the United States about its widening trade deficit with China will come to a head during the congressional debate on the renewal of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trade status, the special assistant to President Bill Clinton says.
Sandra Kristoff, who is also senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, said yesterday there was growing concern that the US open market policy was not being reciprocated by either China or Japan.
She said member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum had to match US moves to maintain the momentum towards free trade.
Ms Kristoff said: 'The US will not unilaterally disarm if no one else is willing to step up and be a hero. What we are finding now is that not many are willing to be heroes. The Apec experience is not providing as many heroes as we thought there would be.
'Free trade means zero tariffs, free trade means that services are covered, free trade means investment is covered. That is what Apec economies are hammering away through their action plans.' She said it was important to establish criteria for comparing measures taken to liberalise economies.
'Apec in the first couple of years was defining work standards. It is now in a doing phase. It is very important that this phase moves quickly, and we all move in lock-step. At some stage, it will reach its third stage and will transform itself.' Ms Kristoff said Congress was becoming increasingly concerned that other markets were not opening their markets to the same extent.
