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1. I called on Mr Ken Berry, Director, Asia Pacific Regional Economic Co-operation Section, Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, on 28 May. A few of the points which arose are worth recording:
The next APEC Ministerial meeting, in Seoul, has been put back from October to 12-14 November.
The Australians are a little concerned about the slow pace of progress on resolving the "three Chinas" issue. The Koreans, who as current APEC President have been charged with pursuing the issue, are in a slightly delicate position because they are the only country in APEC which recognises Taiwan and because they need to keep China sweet to avoid the risk of it vetoing Korea's application for UN membership. Mr Berry said the Chinese were proving flexible and that there were no major problems over Hong Kong's participation in APEC. The Koreans were finding it difficult to persuade the Taiwanese to sit down at the same table with China and Hong Kong to discuss the issue. It was generally accepted that all three should have equal participatory rights in APEC. But China would not agree to Taiwan's participation as a full sovereign state. The problem was to find a formula acceptable to both China and Taiwan. Taiwan's application to join GATT, in which they had accepted a formula short of sovereign status, might provide a useful precedent. It had been made clear to the Taiwanese that it was in their own interests to resolve the issue before Korea stepped down from the Presidency in November. The aim was still for senior officials to agree on a formula at their meeting in August and for this formula to be endorsed during the Ministerial Meeting in November, at which point China, Hong Kong and Taiwan would all be able to join the meeting as full participants. If Taiwan continued to prove difficult, it might be necessary to consider admitting China and Hong Kong first and Taiwan later.
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