Ministers from the Asia-Pacific nations said yesterday they had made “significant progress” toward free-trade goals set in 1994 as they closed a two-day meeting in Japan.
The trade talks in Hokkaido are the year’s first ministerial meeting of the APEC forum ahead of the 21-member club’s annual summit in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, in November.
This year is the target for the region’s economic powers — such as the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia — to achieve free and open trade goals set by APEC 16 years ago in Bogor, Indonesia, while developing nations have until 2020.
The ministers said in a statement they “look forward to a strong and credible report that will show the significant progress that has been made toward the Bogor Goals.”
The ministers agreed to promote cooperation on international standardization and make the smooth flow of goods and services as well business travel easier.
They will also strengthen intellectual property rights, the statement said.
“This region is in a very important position as the world’s growth center even after the economic and financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers,” Japanese Trade Minister Masayuki Naoshima said.
“As the chair, we would like to accelerate discussions on specific measures and set new goals for the future of the Asia-Pacific region at the November summit,” Naoshima said.
The ministers at the meeting, also attended by WTO chief Pascal Lamy, expressed their “unwavering determination to bring the Doha Development Agenda to a successful conclusion as soon as possible.”
The Doha Round trade talks, which began in 2001 in the Qatari capital, have remained mired in disagreements between developed countries and developing economies on tariff cuts and reductions of farm subsidies.
At their last summit in Singapore, APEC leaders including the US and Chinese presidents instructed their officials to start exploratory work on a giant free-trade area covering the entire Asia-Pacific region of 2.6 billion people.
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