BRUNEI WANTS FREE TRADE AT TOP OF APEC AGENDA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000573

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP AND EAP/EP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/07/2016
TAGS: ECON PARM PTER TSPL BX
SUBJECT: BRUNEI WANTS FREE TRADE AT TOP OF APEC AGENDA

REF: A. SECSTATE 177258

B. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 572

Classified By: DCM Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

SUMMARY
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1. (C) Brunei's top priority for the upcoming APEC Leaders
meeting and beyond is to encourage movement on regional free
trade agreements (see also ref B). The GoB'sapproach to
multilateral fora will remain to listen to others and seek
consensus. The GoB wants to advance APEC's capacity-building
agenda for trade and development. Brunei also strongly
supports APEC's security agenda and generally supports the
early draft of the Leaders' Statement on WMD. Brunei does
not see the need to move quickly on APEC structural reforms.
END SUMMARY.

YES TO FREE TRADE -- AND BRUNEI HAS A MODEL
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2. (SBU) DCM delivered ref A points to Hakashah Samad,
Special Duties Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (MOFAT). Samad is the GoB's go-to person on APEC,
having been focused on these issues since 2002. Before DCM
started, Samad accurately predicted U.S. views on over half
our talking points.


3. (C) Samad said that the GoB approach to the upcoming
Leaders' Meeting would be to not/not take the lead, but to
listen to others' views and join in on consensus issues.
That said, Brunei strongly supported APEC discussion on an
APEC-wide free trade agreement. Separately, MOFAT Permanent
Secretary Lim Jock Hoi told the Ambassador that the GoB was

SIPDIS
looking to the U.S. to send a strong signal in support of
regional free trade at APEC (ref B). Samad said that the GoB
saw the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
Agreement (hereafter, P-4) with Singapore, Chile, and New
Zealand as an excellent template for an FTAAP. He said that
the GoB saw the non-prescriptive, non-binding design as a
major advantage of the P-4 model. Canada, Hong Kong, and
Peru had all expressed interest in the P-4, and Samad was
hopeful that Peru would soon be ready to announce its
interest in joining. Samad acknowledged that the two
toughest chapters - investment and services - were not yet
complete. He noted that the P-4 will hold a mini-summit at
the APEC Leaders meeting and hoped this would generate the
momentum needed to complete the agreement in the next twelve
months.


4. (C) On the model chapters of the FTAAP under discussion,
Samad said the GoB had no objections to the U.S. draft on
rules of origin. He cautioned that the GoB had limited
capacity to review chapters and may not be able to move as
quickly on specific issues, noting government procurement
rules in particular.

Yes to Development
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5. (C) Samad said that Brunei believed that APEC had an
important role in fostering regional development through
capacity building. APEC supported efforts to promote
cultural understanding and interfaith dialog need to contine
hand-in-hand with development. This was needed to help
ensure broader support for the trade liberalization goals
agreed to in Bogor. Brunei endorsed the Hanoi Action Plan to
reach Bogor goals as laid out in the Pusan road map. On the
technology choice pathfinder, Samad said that the GoB was not
yet ready to join. MOFAT experts support joining the
pathfinder, but a final decision is pending review from GoB
IT experts that Brunei can implement what is called for in
the pathfinder.

Moving Forward on IPR
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6. (C) The GoB in principle supports strengthening IPR
protections. Draft legislation to stiffen penalties for
violations and improve enforcement tools is currently under
review by the Attorney General's office to ensure it complies
with Brunei's existing treaty obligations.

Security is Part of APEC's Value
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7. (C) Samad said that Brunei welcomes security dialogue and
cooperation in the APEC context. He said the GoB would soon
complete necessary bureacratic processes to identify Brunei's
point of contact on for the Aviation Security POC Network.

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He reviewed the draft WMD statement and indicated that the
current language had removed some of the more objectionable
language from previous versions. While he could not give a
final answer, he indicated that the GoB would likely support
a text close to this draft.

Go Slow on APEC Reform
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8. (C) Samad cautioned that the GoB approach to APEC reform
would be, "don't fix it if it is not broken." Coming out of
the Danang discussions, Brunei did not understand the need to
have both a Chief Operating Officer and an Executive
Director. Brunei is comfortable with the current rotational
system for the Secretariate and worried that the selection
process for a professional ED would become politicized with
unwanted consequences. Samad said the GoB was also concerned
about the costs of hiring a COO and wondered if a small IT
staff couldn't perform this function for the time being.
FRIEDMAN