HANOI --- Warning that the failure of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks would have grave consequences on their country’s economy and the global trading system, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum pressed for the immediate resumption of the stalled negotiations.

In a strongly-worded declaration at the end of the 14^th APEC Leaders Meeting held at newly-built National Convention Center (NCC) outside Hanoi, the leaders of the 21 Pacific Rim countries agreed to "spare no efforts to break the current deadlocks and achieve an ambitious and overall balanced outcome of the Round with the development dimension being at its core."

The declaration covers a range of issues, including proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, free trade, investments, corruption, prevention and response to avian and influenza pandemics, HIV and energy.

The urgent call for the return to the negotiating table came five months after the Doha Round of the WTO talks collapsed due to disagreements between rich and poor countries over farm subsidies among India, Brazil, the European Union and APEC members United States, Japan, and Australia.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, this year’s Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), led the regional grouping’s drive to restart the Doha Round, named after the Qatar capital, amid fears that a prolonged standoff could lead to an irrevocable collapse of the trade talks.

Although the leaders continued to push strongly the APEC agenda of a comprehensive regional trade agreements/free trade agreements (RTAs/FTAs) leading to the ultimate goal of greater trade liberation and genuine reductions in trade transaction costs, getting to the objective remains an idea in progress.

The leaders, however, commended the completion of models for six RTAs/FTAs that would serve as reference for APEC member economies ‘negotiating high-quality FTAs."

They also warned that terrorist acts pose serious threats worldwide as they pointed out that advancing the cause of regional prosperity and sustainable development is a complementary mission of APEC.

While the economic forum leaders renewed their commitment to the 2003 Bangkok declaration to dismantle trans-boundary terrorist groups and to eliminate the danger posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, they nimbly skirted around the issue of North Korea’s nuclear test -- by making no mention about it.

Noting the rapidly increasing energy demands and concerns for environment, the APEC urged all member economies to pursue programs to attract investments in the energy sector, cross-border energy trade, "development of new and renewable energy sources and technologies to ensure cleaner use of fossil fuels, to boost energy efficiency and conservation, to enhance emergency preparedness and to better protect critical energy infrastructure."

`The leaders also called for stepped-up campaign against corruption, which they described as "one of the greatest obstacles to economic and social development."

They underscored the need for the strict and effective implementation of the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Task Force initiatives against corruptions.

This can be achieved, they said, through the enforcement in member countries of anti-bribery laws, prosecution of offenders, strict law-enforcement and denial of safe-havens for suspects.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to return to Manila early Tuesday morning from Singapore where she proceeded for a series of meetings with foreign business leaders immediately after attending the 14^th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders summit in Hanoi on Saturday and Sunday.

The President and her lean delegation which includes some Cabinet members arrived at Singapore’s Changi International Airport Sunday night from the Vietnamese capital.

Among the members of her official delegation to Singapore are Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Belen Anota, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, Trade Secretary Peter Favila, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Tourism Secretary Joseph Durano, Ambassador and Presidential Adviser on International Competitiveness Roberto Romulo and Investor Relations Office Executive Director Renato Pizarro.

The President’s meetings with business leaders in Singapore are intended to drum up investors’ interest in the Philippines as an investment destination. Many of the large companies operating in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), including the Philippines, are based in Singapore.

In Hanoi, the President held talks with the other 20 APEC leaders on further strengthening bilateral and multilateral trade relations, greater cooperation in energy development, ensuring the peace and security of member countries, and immediate resumption of the stalled Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, among other topics.

In her bilateral meeting with United States President George W. Bush on Saturday, President Arroyo expressed her appreciation for the US assistance to the development of Mindanao and her government’s campaign against terrorism.

Calling for greater US involvement in Mindanao, she said the US-Philippines partnership in the fight against terrorism and the development of Mindanao would benefit not only APEC but the whole world.

She pointed out that "Mindanao has all the ingredients of a fresh global crusade to defeat terror, to foster understanding and interfaith solidarity to build self-determination, to fight ignorance and poverty."

President Arroyo and her delegation left Manila for Hanoi on Friday afternoon. Barely an hour after her arrival Friday night, she met with the Filipino community in Vietnam.

SINGAPORE—The Philippines and the United States are moving toward a free trade regime that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hopes will materialize before she bows out of office in 2010.

In an interview with the media aboard the Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight that took her from Hanoi to Singapore last night, the President said US President George W. Bush agreed that the two countries lay the groundwork for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) immediately.

She said she brought up the FTA issue during her meeting with Bush on the sidelines of the 14^th annual meeting of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Hanoi over the weekend.

The two leaders were among 21 heads of state who attended the APEC meeting.

Describing her discussion with Bush as "very substantive," she said that when she brought up the issue of the FTA between the two countries, the US President said "yes, immediately."

She noted that in the past, US trade and other officials, as well as members of the US business community, had shown little interest in an RP-US free trade arrangement. She attributed the change of heart on the part of the US to a "common agenda of free trade in APEC."

The President said that a free trade agreement would bolster the two countries’ strategic partnership for safer and a more prosperous world. "The Philippines and the US share the same ideals of modern democracy," she added.

"We fight for peace, freedom and freedom from want. We have a comprehensive political and economic alliance" with the US as well as bilateral and multilateral arrangements with East Asian countries, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and others, she said.

The President said she has instructed Doris Ho of the Asia-Pacific Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to prepare the draft of the US-RP free trade arrangement "so we don’t have to go through years and years of negotiations."

She also said that New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, a Philippine visitor a few months back, told her that New Zealand is willing to help the Philippine government’s program to phase down infant milk in favor of breastfeeding.

A leading milk exporter, New Zealand can help the Philippines shift to other market segments like older children, non-lactating mother and elderly persons, the President said.

Clark also assured the President that New Zealand was willing to help the Philippine government’s reforestation project in Bukidnon.

The government has launched a program to reforest about half a million hectares of denuded upland areas throughout the country.

The President also said that during her bilateral meeting with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in Hanoi, the Chilean leader assured her that Chile would be willing to help the Philippines reforest its denuded areas.

"Chile has been diversifying its economy because it is very dependent on mining but it is prosperous and it wants to do other things with its mountains like reforestation and it has been helping other countries’ reforestation programs, among them Mexico," the President said.