Asia-Pacific nations say they do not want...

Asia-Pacific nations say they do not want to form a trade bloc confronting North America and Europe, but economists warn that they may be forced into it unless world trade is liberalized. “Events in North America and Europe are driving the world that way. An Asia-Pacific trade bloc is emerging by default,” says a recent report by the Australian-based Center for International Economics, a private research group. Asia-Pacific countries worry that the European Community’s plan to become a single market in 1992 could make it a “Fortress Europe” that would resist imports. The free trade zone comprising Canada and the United States, which Mexico may join, has aroused similar fears. A three-way split in world trade will emerge unless countries commit themselves to removing trade barriers, says the research group’s report, which was commissioned by the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A Reuters survey shows that the 12 nations of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, formed last year, reject the idea that the organization will become a closed trading system.