PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE MON P. J. KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, GRAND HYATT HOTEL, MONDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 1994
E& OE PROOF COPY
PM: Well, since I saw you last I have had meetings with Prime Minister Chuan
and lunch with President Clinton and a meeting this afternoon with
President Soeharto. So, I would be quite happy to take any questions from
you.
J; Lets start with President Clinton
PM: We had a lunch, we reaffirmed our country's strong support for the APEC
commitment. The President was very complimentary about our role In our
APEC and I was of his decision last year to hold the Leaders meeting. And
we have acknowledged both the central role that President So eharto has
played in getting the communique together and negotiating it to this point.
We agreed on the Importance of developing an action plan for free trade,
that is the Importance of deciding whien next we meet how we then start
giving effect to some of the content and decision taken In Bogor. We also
agree on the Importance of APEC Loaders continuing to meet regularly.
The President thought it was a tremendously good thing that the Asia-
Pacific was meeting at Leaders level and that you can see just from one day
how many countries and just how many leaders can meet one another so
effectively and quickly and efficiently. We shared other views on the region
Including Japan, Korea and China. Then we had an Interesting and amiable
discussion about domestic political issues and developments In both
countries. I'm not sure the Liberal Party of Australia would have been
terribly -pleased with. my contribution. but it certainly amused the President.
And, he had a few things to say about his opponents as well.
So, that was the sort of general discussion. I think that the President, I
made this point to him that the likelihood of an American President being In
Indonesia for the development of a free trade agreement, free trade
declaration across the most developed and developing countries is so novel
as to indicate very clearly that the United States obvlousiy sees a large part
of Its future in Asia.
J: Mr Keating, can you give us a sense of how you feel less than 24 hours
away from an agreement...
PM: I think that for a start this issue has been well and truly debated now over
the year. Each of us have got a stake In it. I have spoken to various
Leaders. President Soeharto has, I think, put together a very cogent, well
worded, thoughtful communique and It has got the hard decisions in It and
he stuck to it. I think this has been a very big factor and will be a big factor
in its success the strength and determination which he has committed to it.
One gets the sense that gradually peoples fears are being assuaged. That
Is, those who believe they have I mean, there has been quite a bit of
gnashing of teeth with ft because It Is quite a decision of such moment. This
is not just verbiage, this Is not just some sort of communique, some piece of
empty rhetoric, there Is a whole lot of decisions being taken here and when
the weight comes on, people do start thinking what consequences it has for
them and that Is why, I think, that there has been on the part of some
countries some real concerns. But, gradually, I think, they're concerns are
being settled and the communique Is looking stronger.
J: Would you say It is fair to characterise this as possibly the most Important
process that you have been Involved In?
PM: Certainly the most important I have ever been involved with.. Because this
is the birth of a free trade agreement, of a community of countries coming
together to introduce and support the benefits of free trade and it gives
Australia, as I have said before, a seat at the largest table It has ever been
at. So, one can't be other than struck by the sense of occasion.
J: How do you explain the significance of It though to ordinary Australians who
can see something happening very far away?
PM: It will matter to Australians in terms of jobs, of opportunities, of the fact that
Australian products and services will be more freely traded in the Asia-
Pacific, it will mean interesting jobs for many Australians and younger
Australians in particular, It will mean mobility that my generation didn't have,
S it willmean all those things." It will mean Australia has gof a stake In a very
large market that tt has never had a stake In before.
J: Do you expect to. see a Leaders meeting in Japan next year as a result of
your meeting with Clinton
PM: I think so. I think there Is now fairly clear support gathering for a succession
of meetings and the next of ci rce would be In Japan. But still, this Is for
the Leaders to discuss tomorrow, but just from the informal expressions I
am getting I think we will probably see this becoming If not permanent a
semi-permanent feature of the landscape.
J: Do you see APEC as being a process for, If you like, a reform of US foreign
policy in this area moving away from the hubs and spokes Involved In five
or six years ago In the multi-lateral
PM: I think so. I think as the cold war has evaporated and the American
Presidency is less about control of a strategic force and more about regional
dispute settlement of the kind you have seen in Central America and the
Carribean in the Middle East, North Korea et cetera I think we will find the
expression of American foreign policy perhaps more and more in trade.
Therefore, It Is, I think, a very bold step for President Clinton to Imagine a
free and open Asia-Pacific in which America takes part and trying to turn
that sense of imagination Into a reality.
J: Prime Minister, after your discussion with Mr Clinton today has he come
further around to the view that you have had on the relationship between
human rights questions and development In trade?
PM: I think we have a concurrence of view about this, but we didn't discuss It at
lunch. But, let me say I couldn't be happier with the nature of the discussion
I had with him. It was relaxed, It was informal, it was one which not
unreasonably was one between countries which are very friendly and who
have a common set of objectives here. But, can I also say. I have just
recently finished a meeting with President Soeharto and that was the most
relaxed, informal meeting I have had with him and the President Is. I think,
feeling good about this meeting and, I think, he Is entitled to feel good about
it. Prime Minister, on Friday you said you were Just looking for perhaps a
political commitment from the APEC members to an organisation program.
Do you have more detail than that?
PM: The words In the communique are fairly hard words. They are not alms and
endeavours, they are hard words. I mean, this Is being approached by the
APEC4eadership-as a set of executive decisioris that chart a course which
will then have to be facilitated. So. this, if you like, this communique Is like
the Cabinet decision, it will then have to be fleshed out and that will happen
probably over the next couple of years.
J: Prime Minister, on your talks with the Thai Prime Minister, is Thailand still
Intending to boycott defence sales coming through?
PM: I had a most amiable discussion with Prime Minister Chuan and I told him
how delighted we had been with not just the work his government has done
in the course of Its charter for Thailand, but coming at a time when it has
been the first democratically elected government likely to be running its term
Is a very encouraging development and I said while we had had concerns
about the certainly more in the past than at present, this support for
groups In Cambodia he said that it was his government's express policy not
to nurture, support or give succour to the Khmer Rouge, certainly In a way
suggested by ourselves and others and that he would bring to book and to
account any officer who was engaged in such activities. So, he expressed,
I think, a very firm view on the part of the government of Thailand against
any material support in this way and again we agreed together that the best
way, of course, consolidating Cambodia under a democratic regime was for
the government of Cambodia to perform to the expectations of the
Cambodian community.
J: Mr Keating, how close is the draft communique to the Eminent Persons
recommendations?
PM: I'd have to go back and try to thread them across one to the other. The
Eminent Persons Group was there, I think, to run a debate amongst the
government trade economic forces of each particular country, to focus on
these questions and to try to develop some sort of coherent consensus of
view. But, it was never, ever Intended to be the draft, if you like, of any
such communique. This was always left to the Leaders. So, It has helped
flesh out opinion within the community of the Asia-Pacific, but it In no way
substituted for the Leaders own work, but it has been a very useful adjunct
to . that work.
J: Prime Minister, do you have any plans to meet with Dr Mahathir?
PM: I met him today and I have since done a press conference about that.
J: So, can I Just go back to that question about the rifle sales to Thailand, did
you talk about that, did you get any Informatlon about that?.
PM: No, he said that apparently some parliamentarians in Australia had made
. some reference to rifles, were Thailand to buy rifles from Australian being
passed across to other forces and I told him this wasn't the view of the
government and that we didn't put any weight on that view at all.
J: Did he then say that he would lift any restrictions on possible sales
I L
PM: There are no restrictions to lift I don't believe.
J: Do you expect sales will go ahead successfully?
PM: I don't know, but who knows. I mean, all the world tenders for these sorts of
things.
J: What is President Clinton's assessment of the recent mid-term
congressional elections?
PM: I think his views were very ably expressed in his Georgetown speech, I
mean more comprehensively than he expressed them today and I think it Is
obviously leading to some rethinking of his political positioning in the United
States, but again some of the more what one may say intuitive views he put,
I think, were put In the context of a private meeting.
J: What were his views for example on getting the GATT through the
Congress?
PM: We didn't discuss It. I think he would think, as I do, that getting the GATT
through was central to the US's role In the world In terms of the International
trading community. So, It just never arose as any point of discussion.
J: Australia's exports to all APEC countries are growing, but ASEAN
Interregional trade is growing faster than that, so Australia is losing market
share. Does that concern you, have you brought up that with any of the
ASEAN leaders that you have met?
PM: I don't quite understand the. question, just put it again.
J: Interregional ASEAN trade Is growing extremely fast, cutting Australia's
market access.
PM: Inter-ASEAN trade.
J: Yes, does that concern you, have you brought that up with any of the
ASEAN leaders.
PM: Well, they have got a free trade agreement. They have got an agreement
called AFTA and one would. hope that that would have the effect of
speeding up intra-ASEAN trade. We trade with ASEAN countries on a
bilateral basis and also we trade Into the Asia-Pacific more broadly and as
you know, there Is a very lively debate now between us about whether
Australia and New Zealand should join AFTA. This would be a good 1
development I think, but it would seem to me fairly normal that Intra-ASEAN
trade is growing given the fact that they have a policy there to make it grow.
Are we upset about that? No more than they would be upset about CER
between Australia and New Zealand.
J: That would be concern though, if you are losing market share?
PM: It is not a concern that Is keeping me awake at night I can tell you.
J: Prime Minister, can you tell us a bit about your discussions with President
Soeharto
PM: He was in a very good frame of mind, I think, and feeling that he Is gradually
winning the day on his communique and, I think, appreciated the role
Australia has played in backing him In because I told him and I told you we
would stick with him absolutely In this communique, So, to say relations
have never been better Is to understate, I would say.
J: You spoke with President Clinton about an action plan for free trade to be
discussed does that mean that basically you have only got to nail down a
couple of details tomorrow
PM: No, tomorrow's meeting will decide amongst other things where we meet
next and what we do. Now, what we do obviously will be to start to think
about some of the machinery to give effect to what we are now deciding
and that Is what I meant by that remark.
J: Mr Keating, you said President Soeharto is gradually winning the day who
is yet to be won over?
PM: I think we are at the point where there are few to be won over.. But; again,
I'm not about making the winning over of people harder by making them the
focus of attention.
J: Mr Keating, can you comment a little more on how much comfort China has
In getting WTO membership
PM: Well, the fact that the communique. explicltly says that all members of APEC
should be members of the WTO and the US signs on to that means that
there Is a point of principle where the US Is saying that China should be part
of the World. Trade-Organisation. -Now, there Is a negotiation still to be had
and for any of us joining these bodies there are commitments to be given,
obligations to be met for benefits to be gained. But, In principle, I think this
is a very strong piece of paper for China and they understand that perfectly
well.
* 7 J: the Chinese were saying at their press conferences that they still want a
Sbit more comfort on the way the free trade agenda Is Implemented
PM: They will be raising some of these things with the President, but it will be all
in the wash tomorrow when you get the communique.
ends