Our participation in APEC ensures that the United States contributes to and benefits from the dynamic economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region. In addition to its very important role in anchoring the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region, APEC has also served as a catalyst for liberalizing the world trading system. In 1993, the first APEC Leaders meeting hosted by President Clinton in Seattle helped spur the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round. We expect APEC Leaders to urge completion of an Information Technology Agreement in the WTO that would eliminate all tariffs in the high-tech sectors of the future by the year 2000. We also expect APEC Leaders to press for maximum coverage in the WTO telecommunications services talks, which are scheduled to conclude in February.
Telecommunications services are a natural complement to information technology products.
A services agreement would open telecommunications markets and raise economic competitiveness and productivity worldwide. I don't need to tell this group that U.S. companies are in the best position to benefit from such agreements. Advancing the information technology revolution is an appropriate role for the dynamic economies of the Asia-Pacific. But neither the U.S. Government nor APEC can do this alone. We need your help to convince other governments, and the business leaders they listen to, to eliminate the tariffs and restrictive regulations that serve, in effect, as taxes on virtually every sector of modern society.