Asia-Pacific economies led by the US and China opened annual talks yesterday with calls to fight protectionism or risk reversing the region’s “fragile” economic rebound.
Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo (楊榮文) said “resisting protectionism” was the topmost concern, as foreign and trade ministers from the 21-member APEC met in advance of a weekend summit here.
“It is a slippery slope and if we are not careful, before we know it, all of us will be in a much more dire situation,” he said before convening the meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Pacific Rim delegates.
Asked if the ministers believed the world’s worst economic crisis since the 1930s was at an end, Yeo told reporters: “The consensus is that it is by no means over.
“The upturn that we now have is a respite ... the situation is still fragile and we should address the root causes of the problem,” he said.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick told the Foreign Correspondents Association of Singapore that protectionism remained a risk.
“This is still a region that is dependent very much on trade and logistics systems and so when you get higher unemployment, you always have the risk of protectionism as well,” he said.
US Chamber of Commerce chief Thomas Donohue urged APEC to fight “trade isolationism” and lead the world in “jump-starting” the Doha round of talks on a new global trade deal.
“Expanding free trade across the Pacific can drive the global economic recovery, create badly needed jobs and advance economic and social progress in developing and developed countries alike,” Donohue said at a separate forum.
“The United States, in particular, needs to get off the sidelines and embrace an ambitious trade agenda,” he said.
APEC finance ministers will meet separately today and are expected to call for lavish stimulus spending to be kept in place until the global economic recovery is secure.
Zoellick, however, said the accelerating recovery in Asia could trigger a new round of economic overheating and inflation, and said governments must unwind their stimulus injections with care.
He said there were signs in some nations of a “substantial” rise in equity and property prices that could lead to asset bubbles.
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