A strategy for global negotiations To be in a position to deal with some difficult issues in the WTO, in due course, APEC participants need to begin now to work collectively in that vital multilateral forum. APEC governments are to table plans of action to make a substantive start towards their Bogor targets at the Osaka meetings of APEC leaders. APEC governments are then expected to commence the process of reform before the 1996 meetings in the Philippines. They are also expected to commit themselves, through their domestic policy-making processes, to a medium-term action plan for the subsequent few years. These are expected to contain significant proposals for facilitating trade and investment, together with commitments to liberalize trade in goods and services beyond the minimum commitments made in the Uruguay Round. This will give APEC's representatives in Geneva the opportunity to seize and retain the initiative for subsequent multilateral negotiations. As soon as APEC governments have taken significant unilateral decisions to liberalize trade or investment beyond the obligations of the Uruguay Round they can report these decisions to the WTO through an "APEC Group a coalition of APEC government representatives in the WTO The group would to indicate the consistency theiractions with all WTO articles initiate discussions aimed at global liberalization of comparable scope and extent. As a large group which had already taken positive initiatives, APEC's representatives would have substantial credibility and negotiating influence. The next steps would depend on the reaction of the rest of the world particularly the EU, with Asia Pacific governments retaining the initiative throughout, while benefiting from the bulk of the gains from their own initial liberalization If the EU responds rationally and positively, then it will offer undertake liberalization of comparable scope in the context of global negotiations and will