Asia-Pacific trade ministers issued a diluted “actions” statement after a weekend meeting in Vietnam, suggesting further pressure from the US to avoid explicit pledges to combat protectionism.
The statement came after a dispute over wording, particularly whether to include language about protectionism. Instead, the APEC document focused on issues such as regulation and red tape.
“We call on officials to accelerate work to deepen APEC’s structural reform agenda to remove barriers to trade and investment,” it said.
Photo: AFP
The outcome contrasted with a ministerial meeting in Peru in November last year, which issued a strong statement against protectionism.
Speaking at a briefing yesterday in Hanoi, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said his nation faced a huge trade deficit and warned it would fight against “unfair trade.”
The US would stick by its decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, he said.
“That does not mean we will not engage in this region,” Lighthizer said. “The [US] president thought it was so important that I come here and demonstrate to this region how important it is to the US to be involved.”
Vietnamese Trade and Industry Minister Tran Tuan Anh said the 21-member APEC strongly supported the multilateral trading environment, while warning of “signs of protectionism.”
Russian Minister for Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said in an interview on Saturday there was one nation at the talks opposed to a strong commitment to fighting protectionism.
When asked who that was, he replied: “You guess.”
“When there were talks about the memorandum of the forum, there were 20 countries that agree on everything and one country that has not agreed on anything,” he said.
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