？Read the article below about.？Choose the best sentence to fill in each of the gaps.？For e

？Read the article below about.

？Choose the best sentence to fill in each of the gaps.

？For each gap 8-12, mark on letter (A-G) on your Answer Sheet.

？Do not use any letter more than once.

The Steady Progress of APEC

It is a measure of APEC' s success that its summit meetings (stating with the first held in 1993 at Seattle in USA) are now held annually. The second was held in 1994 at Bogor in lndonesia. It adopted a declaration to abolish tariffs between all its members by the year 2020. APEC' s developed economies would, however, follow an earlier schedule of freeing trade by 2010. The third summit at Osake (Japan) in November was to stock of the progress towards the free trade goal.

APEC' s progress is even greater considering that until the first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of 12 regional foreign and economic ministers in Australia, it was simply a laudable idea. (8) Ever since that fateful Canberra conference in November 1989, APEC has never looked back. The original 12-member forum has 18 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Guinea, the Philip-pines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. The rush to join the APEC club is so great that it had to impose a three-year moratorium on new membership till 1996. (9) When Australia first mooted the proposal to convene a conference for regional cooperation, there was considerable misgiving and scepticism about it. Most ASEAN countries (Association of South East Asian Nations)--Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysin, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (Vietnam was not a member of them)--were not particularly enthusiastic. (10) Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Ah Alatas, simply wanted any Pacific organization to be an extension of ASEAN. Indonesia's hosting of the APEC surnmit last year, where President Soeharto played a leading role in putting together the free trade declaration, would suggest that Jakarta's earlier misgivings have disappeared. (11) In the lead-up to the Osaka summit, the report card on the free trade agenda (gleaned from the meetings of officials from member countries) did not seem terribly good. The United States, which seeks expanded access (and at a quicker pace) to regional markets, was unhappy with the slowness of Japan to advance the free trade agenda. Japan was the country chairing APEC for 1995. According to MS Sandra Kristoff, the US State Department's Coordinator for APEC, Japan had "to go out there and create a consensus [on free trade], lead a consensus, make this happen ... The United States doubted Japan's free trade credentials and felt that its heart was not in the APEC pledge. Tokyo has wanted a free trade agenda to develop on a voluntary basis. (12)

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However, because of America's growing preoccupation in the months ahead with presidential elections, the Clinton administration's impatience and consequent negative rhetoric need not be taken at its face value. Washington cannot afford to ignore or opt out of APEC, with the USA having about ＄400 billion annual trade with the region.

A The second summit was held in 1994 at Bogor in Indonesia.

B It was felt that a pan-Pacific organization would dwarf 12 ASEAN, which might then lose its reason for being discussed and even its existence.

C But, it was an idea whose time had come.

D It would, however, be naive to suggest that APEC will be all smooth sailing.

E This in itself is a proof of the considerable headway APEC has made in a short period of about six years.

F It needs emphasizing that all APEC members are in favour of regional free trade but all de not favour set time-schedules and their enforcement.

G Washington has not been happy with this approac