Foreign ministers line up behind U.S. plan to make trade, travel safer

Friday, October 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) _ Pacific Rim countries struggling to balance safety and prosperity lined up behind a sweeping American plan to make trade and travel safer, even as some executives cautioned that too much security was bad for business.

Foreign and economy ministers representing the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum capped two days of meetings with a declaration supporting the U.S. plan, which would standardize customs information, put electronic seals on shipping containers, tighten baggage screening at airports and reinforce cockpits.

The ministers said they were addressing two goals: ``enhanced security against terrorist threats and continued promotion of economic growth.''

``Terrorism, in all its forms, is a threat to economic stability in APEC, as well as a threat to regional peace and security, and a direct challenge to APEC's vision of free, open and prosperous economies,'' they said in the declaration.

But business leaders, who met Thursday just down the highway in a parallel conference of 400 executives from Manhattan to Manila, Philippines, were torn.

On one hand, they called for controls to stanch the wave of terrorism that has sent the global economy into a slump. On the other, they worried that stricter rules for trade could make it even harder to do business in the age of globalization.

``If we can't move goods and people, we can't trade in a global economy,'' said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ``The economic agenda cannot prosper unless the issue of terrorism and potential terrorist acts are dealt with.''

Heads of state flew in for the summit culminating the APEC gathering, but most had no official duties until Saturday. They joined the ministers Thursday night for a dinner hosted by Mexican President Vicente Fox, where a military band and a string quartet serenaded them.

Winds picked up and a light rain fell as Hurricane Kenna, a Category 5 storm, moved toward to Mexican mainland southeast of the summit site. Category 5 is the strongest hurricane and is capable of causing catastrophic damage.

Organizers did not expect Kenna to strike Cabo San Lucas but said they had an evacuation plan and an alternate summit site ready just in case.

For the second year in a row, terrorism overshadowed free trade in APEC discussions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled his trip after Chechen separatists took hundreds of theatergoers hostage less than three miles from the Kremlin. Indonesia and the Philippines both are grappling with deadly bombings, and U.S. authorities believe they might have arrested a sniper who terrorized their nation for three weeks.

Some executives said the violence was drawing too much attention away from the economic goals the leaders came to discuss.

``It's a shame for those of us who want to push an agenda of free trade and more commerce,'' Nelson Cunningham, managing director of the Washington consulting firm Kissinger McLarty Associates. ``APEC has been hijacked by the terrorists.''

Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was important that forums like APEC not be devoted to ``the particular crisis of the day,'' but said it was inevitable that terrorism would come under discussion.

For growth and prosperity, Powell said, APEC nations need to tighten security, ``particularly our security from global terrorism.''

To do that, the ministers gave their blessing to an American initiative called STAR _ for ``Secure Trade in the APEC Region'' _ that will tighten international security and make broad changes in the way international companies do business.

Powell called it ``a package of bold joint actions to make the flow of trade, finance and communication more secure,'' and said richer countries would help poorer ones pay for the changes, which could cost billions of dollars.

Contrasting with his main mission at the summit _ to drum up support for a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq _ Powell also offered another solution to the problem of insecurity: reducing the poverty he said breeds terrorists. He said war should be only a last resort.

``True success, true wealth, does not come out of the barrel of a gun,'' he said.