THIRD APEC MINISTERIAL MEETING

SEOUL, KOREA

12-14 NOVEMBER 1991

Annex C

APEC DECLARATION ON THE URUGUAY ROUND

1. Ministers from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and the United States met in Seoul on 12-14 November 1991 and addressed, as the number one priority of the APEC Agenda, the current status of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations.

2. Ministers declared a successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round to be the most critical economic issue facing the international community.

3. Recalling the Singapore Declaration on the Uruguay Round, Ministers underlined the significance for each of their economies and to the Asia-Pacific region of an open and strengthened multilateral trading system.

4. Ministers emphasized that a major and significant outcome to the Round is necessary to underpin the growth of world trade, to forestall protectionist pressure, to instill confidence in markets and to facilitate the continuation of economic reform in the region and elsewhere.

5. Ministers welcomed recent signs of movement in key areas of the negotiations and called for further progress in Agriculture, Textiles and Clothing, Services, Market Access, Rule-Making and Intellectual Property, leading to a balanced, comprehensive and substantial result.

6. Ministers declared that a successful Round must include substantial liberalisation of trade in both goods and services, based on strengthened rules and disciplines in the multilateral trading system.

7. Ministers expressed their firm resolve to show the necessary flexibility and to take, as soon as possible, the political decisions needed to assemble a detailed package by the end of this year.

8. To this end, Ministers pledged to instruct their negotiators to return to the negotiating table with renewed vigor, and to work with each other and their trading partners outside the region to produce a bold and forward-looking result.