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APEC ministers vow trade will beat global crisis

Twenty-one Asia-Pacific economies making up half of world commerce made a plea on Thursday against protectionism and urged a quick breakthrough in global trade talks to beat the financial crisis.

Trade and foreign ministers met for two days of in-depth talks in Peru's capital Lima, seeking a formula to tear down tariff walls — the key roadblock in global trade negotiations — by the end of the year.

The push to resurrect the Doha round of WTO talks comes despite rising criticism of globalization in some quarters, as the world economy suffers its worst crisis since the Great Depression.

“We will stand firm against any protectionist sentiment arising out of this crisis,” ministers at the APEC forum said in a joint statement.

The ministers were laying the groundwork for a weekend leaders' summit, which is the last scheduled foreign trip for outgoing US President George W. Bush.

The ministers pledged to work to resolve the key WTO sticking point of tariff barriers by the end of next month, paving the way for an elusive global trade pact.

“A strong agreement would demonstrate the ability of the international community to work together to bolster a deteriorating global economy,” the statement said.

Leftist workers planned to meet Bush on his arrival yesterday with protests blaming him for setting off the global economic crisis by championing free trade.

Bush's successor, president-elect Barack Obama, backs free trade but has criticized US deals with some APEC members as harmful to US workers. US unemployment claims soared to a 16-year high, government data showed on Thursday.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab predicted that Obama would also pursue free-trade pacts.

“We all brought lessons from what happened in the 1930s when the United States and other countries took the wrong approach by raising barriers” and worsened the Great Depression, she said.

Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said “we are simply running out of time” to show the potential of free trade.

“We can produce excellent news on the financial crisis if we have a Doha agreement in the next couple of months,” he told reporters. “We can also provide an excuse for those pushing for protectionism if we don't get the Doha round done.”

Free trade talks collapsed in July owing to acrimony between rich and developing countries — particularly the US and India — on how far to go in protecting poor farmers from the globalized economy.

The APEC ministers called on their leaders, including Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), to offer support to wrap up the global trade talks, launched in the Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

“We are in a state of emergency,” Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said. “I sensed a strong determination in the region to work together.”

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