TNAG-2752-FCO40-3967-Organisation-for-Economic-Co-operation-and-Development-(OECD-1994 — Page 96

A.

1.

Background

In 1989, the OECD launched an informal dialogue with the Dynamic Asian conomies (DAEs) Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and

hailand

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which are the OECD countries' most important (non-member) trade and investment partners. This dialogue has explored a range of subjects which are at the core of the OECD/DAE economic relationship, principally in the trade, investment and finance fields.

2.

This year the dialogue has been extended to the reforming countries of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico), which will participate in four of the six workshops to be held in OECD's informal dialogue with the Dynamic Non-Member Economies (DNMEs) (on 12th and 13th July the Latin American countries participated in their first workshop, on foreign direct investment relations). In addition, 1993 will witness the extension of the scope of the dialogue to other policy issues of mutual interest, namely environment, education and training.

3.

and

The informal dialogue takes place between partners who have strong common economic interests, and whose objective is to foster a convergence of views on policies and, as appropriate, on "rules of the game" so as to improve the foundations for economic growth. The importance of developing further the informal dialogue was underlined in the Communiqu of the 1993 Council meeting at Ministerial level, which indicates that "the informal dialogue ... has proved substantial and useful", Ministers asked "that this dialogue with the DNMES be deepened".

4.

Thus, this note proposes a set of topics and modalities for the informal dialogue with the DNMEs in 1993 so as to deepen the dialogue on policy issues of mutual interest. It takes into account the various comments received during consultations with the DNMES, based on the Secretariat's proposals.

5.

The deepening of the dialogue in a resource-constrained environment requires variable and flexible periodicity for the subject areas covered by the dialogue. In particular, it is proposed that:

6.

the annual workshop on trading relationships and trade policies be continued, consistent with the high priority attached to this activity by the Trade Committee (trade is at the centre of the OECD/DNME economic relationship);

other subject areas will be deepened in workshops which will have a longer and variable periodicity of, say 18, 24 or 30 months;

this approach creates room to address in 1994 other core subjects, as the dialogue deepens, such as privatisation and competition policy.

It is important to note that interrelationships between the topics of various workshops increases. For example, while it is not proposed to hold a workshop on foreign direct investment relations (another subject which is clearly at the core of the OECD/DNME economic relationship) in 1994, this topic will nevertheless be an important substantive component of the workshops on privatisation and on taxation (focusing on transfer pricing practices).