Profiting from the essence of APEC

Last week's informal APEC leaders' summit, held in Bangkok following a ministerial meeting, saw opinions being widely exchanged among member economies, but the extent to which real action can be taken is questionable. That's why APEC is often regarded as a forum rather than a tightly-regulated international organization.

APEC may have neither enforcement powers nor an adjudication system like the EU, but it is unfair to say that it has absolutely no binding power over its members. For example, its tradition of seating arrangements being determined by alphabetical order remained unchanged this year in Thailand. Moreover, the ban preventing the president of Taiwan from attending the leaders' summit is still in place. These examples show that APEC members are in fact limited by rules of protocol, custom and precedent.

This year's proposal by South Korea and Australia to reform APEC's structure has therefore led to unease in Taiwan. Taiwanese are concerned that APEC may succumb to Chinese pressure and discriminate against Taiwan in its institutional rules and procedures.

As a matter of fact, the institutionalization of APEC started long ago...

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/10/31/2003074065