A multilateral trading system is the best option for Asia's export-driven economies and a successful WTO meeting in Mexico will be crucial, a Singapore minister said yesterday.
"We need to ensure that global trade is based on a rule-based multilateral trading system where goods and services can flow freely with minimum impediment," said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Raymond Lim.
"To sum up, the WTO and the multilateral trading system is the best way forward for Singapore and for East Asia," Lim said in a keynote address on trade policy challenges facing the region.
With the global economy slowing and plagued by worries of a possible Middle East war, Lim said it was more important than ever that members of the international community work together to ensure success at the WTO ministerial meeting in the Mexican town of Cancun in September.
"After an initial recovery, the global economy appeared to have lost steam. Our economies need a collective boost to investment and consumption," Lim said.
"We have to galvanize one another to continue moving forward, and send a strong and positive message to the business community and the world at large," he said.
"It is imperative that Cancun succeeds, otherwise it will be a major setback for the whole Doha Development Agenda, and adds further gloom to global economic prospects, particularly for developing and least developed countries," Lim said.
The full ministerial meeting in Cancun is to serve as a review of the progress on the Doha round of trade negotiations started in the Qatari capital in November 2001.
"It is a comprehensive and balanced agenda that seeks to increase market access for agricultural goods, industrial goods and services," Lim said. "More importantly, for developing countries, the Doha round offers a unique opportunity to advance development in concrete terms," he said.
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