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SCMP Reporter

Asian nations are seen as the key to a successful global pact to liberalise financial services in a deal which must be completed by tomorrow.

 World Trade Organisation (WTO) officials in Geneva said yesterday that 46 new offers had been received from 60 countries and they were now waiting for Indonesia and Thailand to come forward with revised offers.

 'The numbers [of offers] look good - the quality of the package is subjective according to who you are,' an official said.

 Trade diplomats met again yesterday, while intensive bilateral talks involving the United States also took place.

 At stake is access to worldwide banking and insurance markets, under a system that is enforceable by international law.

 Agreement from the US is crucial for any comprehensive deal to take place. The US walked away from a previous attempt to reach an agreement in 1995, citing inadequate offers from developing nations, and the WTO is keen not to have a repeat of the incident.

 Yesterday financial services' lobbying groups from the US and Europe began pushing even harder for greater access to Asian markets, and warned that any deal must be only based on commercial grounds, and not be politically motivated.

 Several organisations fear that industrial countries may allow Asian developing countries in on easier terms, due to turmoil in financial markets.

 It is also feared that negotiators may choose to focus on the quantity rather than the quality of offers presented.

 The US-based Coalition of Service Industries has called the offers 'deficient', and that Asian countries are still falling short of expectations.

 Similarly a European lobby group also believes that more should be done.

 'Asia holds the key to all of this. We can have a great package, where everybody is happy, or a real disaster for free trade,' an official from the group said.

 WTO director-general Renato Ruggiero countered these comments, saying that a 'very impressive harvest' of offers had been presented.

 In what were seen as part of negotiating tactic, the European Union, which conducts the talks on behalf of all the 15 EU member states, attempted to cool the WTO's enthusiasm and warned that there was 'still some way to go'.

 It said that all its individual member countries still had to review the package, and EU ministers were flying into the WTO headquarters in Geneva to look over the deal.

 Countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines have expressed caution over opening up their markets too widely in the face of the economic turmoil, which they see as partly the result of markets that are too liberalised.

 Both, however, have come forward with a package, although it envisages a longer lead-in time for liberalisation, going beyond the proposed 1999 start-up date.

 All eyes are on the US which has threatened to walk away from the deal again, if it believes that the offers proposed are insufficient.



Global trade pact hinges on Asian pitches