"Four Adjectives in Search of a Noun"

By Michael S. Serrill

FRESH FROM HIS FREE-TRADE TRIUMPH in the Americas, Bill Clinton bounded onstage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Seattle last week, singing the glories of pan-Pacific free trade. Amity and optimism were watchwords as the U.S. President greeted leaders from 14 other APEC members, sat through bilateral meetings and swept the whole group off for a casual get- together on nearby Blake Island. There the leaders issued a vague but upbeat joint statement on their shared "economic vision" for the Asia- Pacific area. Said Clinton at a Saturday press conference: "We've agreed that the Asia-Pacific region should be a united one, not divided."

If anything typified the gathering's sunny side, it was the hour-long session that Clinton held with Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa -- who flew directly from his own triumphant passage of political reform legislation that could have major consequences for the world economic order. The pair laughed, chatted amiably and spent 20 minutes in closed-door discussion. As Clinton said later, "This is a different government and a different time with, I think, different objectives for the internal economy of . Japan." The pair agreed to meet again on Feb. 11 to hash out new trade deals.

The Clinton-Hosokawa bilateral was just one highlight of the conference, touted as being of historic importance. That was hyperbole, but not in almost 40 years had so many Asian and Pacific heads of state gathered in one place. And while no dramatic decisions were taken, U.S. officials constantly repeated the mantra that "the event is the message" -- the mere fact that nations representing 40% of the world's annual trade had got together was an assertion of a new era.

Trade was the centerpiece of the final communique. Indeed, the Seattle meeting was calculated in part to complete negotiations on the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade, which have been stalled in Geneva for months and face a Dec. 15 deadline for completion. Indeed, the timing of the Seattle meeting was calculated in part to send a message to Europe, and especially France, which has balked at concluding the GATT round because it demands heavy cuts in farm subsidies. "If our efforts to secure global trade agreements falter, then APEC still offers us a way to expand markets within this, the fastest-growing region of the globe," Clinton said pointedly.

In a more concrete effort to nudge the GATT round along, APEC members of GATT agreed to reduce or eliminate tariffs on a wide range of products, including electronics, nonferrous metals, paper, wood, oilseeds and scientific equipment -- and to make those cuts available to all GATT members. Trade in these goods by APEC members of GATT amounts to some $250 billion a year.

The sourest notes of the conclave were probably struck during closed-door meetings between Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The two met for one hour in what was later described as a "vivid and animated" discussion. Among other things, Clinton requested progress on human rights for dissidents and Tibetans and an end to Chinese sales of missile technology to nations like Pakistan and Iran. Without "overall significant progress" on human rights, Clinton has promised he will not renew China's most-favored-natio n trading status next spring. The discussion grew so vigorous that at one point, according to a White House official, Jiang delivered a 15-minute lecture "on the importance of non-intervention in China's internal affairs."

Behind the tough talk, however, both sides knew that neither wants a showdown. Jiang needs the MFN trade status. Clinton was working to preserve % U.S. access to one of the most important markets of the 21st century. In what officials described as a humanitarian gesture, the U.S. last week offered to sell China an $8 million Cray supercomputer designed to help prepare against weather-related disasters. In the past, such hardware has been embargoed on national security grounds. In addition, there is talk that Westinghouse and General Electric may be allowed to sell China turbines for nuclear power plants. The message: a balance must be struck between human rights and commerce.

APEC as a whole shied away from a suggestion that it monitor regional human- rights abuses, along with any notion that it should move toward trade-bloc status. The group even rejected a change in its awkward name -- Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans calls it "four adjectives in search of a noun" -- rather than label itself a "community." Reason: the term suggests the kind of integration that Asian nations say they want to avoid. And besides, said Hong Kong Financial Secretary Hamish Macleod, "People are a little wary of possibly being dominated by the U.S. I think the majority view is don't try to move too fast." For all that caution, the group decided to meet again next year in Indonesia.

With reporting by James Carney and J.F.O. McAllister with Clinton