Apec leaders pledge to turn free-trade dreams into reality

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Pacific Rim leaders including the US and China pledged Sunday to turn their dreams of a vast free-trade zone into reality, setting aside conflicts that marred the G20 summit in Seoul.

The 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) group vowed to resist the forces of protectionism as the world recovers from a painful downturn, and maintain the region’s role as a key growth engine.’We remain committed to maintaining open markets and fighting protectionism. We reaffirm our common resolve to support the recovery in a collaborative and coordinated way,’ they said in a statement.Echoing the language of the Group of 20 summit Friday, they pledged to refrain from competitive currency devaluations and emphasised the need to establish more balanced and sustainable growth. Apec, which produces more than half the world’s economic output and includes global heavyweights as well as minnows Brunei and Papua New Guinea, also agreed to extend until 2013 a ban on new barriers to trade and investment.China’s President Hu Jintao warned protectionism had risen ‘notably’ in the Asia Pacific region and that the global recovery was ‘neither firmly established nor balanced’.Apec’s grand plan is for a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) that would link both sides of the Pacific, but until now it has remained a vague and long-term goal.’We have agreed that now is the time for Apec to translate FTAAP from an aspirational to a more concrete vision,’ the leaders said at the end of a two-day summit in Japan’s port city of Yokohama.’To that end, we instruct Apec to take concrete steps towards realisation of an FTAAP.’The Apec leaders’ statement sidestepped differences between the US and China on what paths to take towards the grand trade plan. Beijing wants the core of the deal to be Asia-centric diplomatic forums where the US is not a member. – Nampa-AFP

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