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APEC to push free trade, investment

Stimulus spending and other emergency measures have set the stage for global economic recovery, but nations must push ahead with free trade and investment to ensure growth, US President Barack Obama and fellow Asia-Pacific leaders said yesterday.

Obama and 20 other leaders, meeting in Singapore for the annual APEC forum, rejected protectionism and agreed to develop long-term strategies that take into account the diverse needs of economies in a region stretching from Chile to China.

GROWTH PARADIGM

Recovery is not yet on a solid footing and the region “cannot go back to growth as usual,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said, reading from a joint statement by the APEC leaders. “We need a new growth paradigm. We need a fresh model of economic integration. We will pursue growth which is balanced, inclusive and sustainable, supported by innovation and a knowledge-based economy, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit our people.”

To that end, APEC members pledged to maintain economic stimulus policies until a durable recovery had clearly taken hold.

Nations must work toward “strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth,” with policies that expand opportunities for all — including women and small business owners — take better care of the environment and promote development, while reducing poverty and ensuring security, they said.

There was no mention of currency rates in the final statement, despite finance ministers’ calls earlier in the week for maintaining “market-oriented exchange rates.”

That was a reference to the yuan, which critics say is kept artificially undervalued, making exports of other countries less competitive.

EXCHANGE RATES

Asked if leaders discussed the argument that controlled exchange rates such as China’s constituted a form of protectionism, Lee said: “Some leaders expressed their concern about the possibility of currency movements that could become unstable and the potential problems that could arise if governments had to continually intervene in order to manage their currencies.”

A push for concrete goals for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions was omitted from the statement. A previous draft had pledged a 50 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050, but the final communique committed only to working toward “an ambitious outcome” at climate talks in Copenhagen next month.

WAY STATION

Obama and other world leaders agreed yesterday that the Copenhagen summit would be merely a way station, not the once hoped-for endpoint in the drive for a new global climate change treaty.

The World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Initiative said the leaders must begin taking stronger action.

“Deleting, rather than strengthening, emission reduction targets in their leaders’ declarations — like they did here in Singapore — is certainly not a solution,” spokeswoman Diane McFadzien said in a statement. “Leaders have to take the bull by the horns and finally tackle the difficult questions, instead of constantly avoiding them.”
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