Economy

Chinese diplomat calls for APEC trade liberalization

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-10 17:02

YOKOHAMA, Japan - The APEC member economies have made significant headway toward the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment, but still need to work harder, a senior Chinese diplomat said Tuesday.

"Overall, the thirteen economies have worked hard toward achieving the Bogor Goals and hence made marked progress. On the other hand, we all agreed that these economies still have big room for improvement and need to make further efforts in terms of trade and investment liberalization," Pang Sen, China's representative to the senior officials' meeting, told Xinhua.

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Senior officials from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have finalized recommendations for ministers and leaders on a new economic growth strategy, possible pathways to a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific and an assessment of progress on the Bogor Goals after two days of meetings in the Japanese port city of Yokohama.

The Bogor Goals, adopted in 1994 at an APEC summit, have become APEC's direction for economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region. The pace of implementation takes into account differing levels of economic development among APEC economies, with the industrialized economies achieving the goal no later than 2010 and developing economies no later than 2020.

The five developed economies -- the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- are subject to assessment at the Yokohama APEC summit. Eight developing economies, including South Korea, Singapore and China's Hong Kong, volunteered to participate in the assessment this year.

APEC members, which account for more than 40 percent of global trade and more than half of the world's economic output, have been developing a growth strategy for their future.

The strategy, developed against the backdrop of the financial crisis, is aimed to achieve growth that is balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure.

Pang said the APEC member economies will understandably emphasize different attributes of the growth strategy since they are at different stages of development.

"To us, all the five attributes are important, and we'll give full attention to all of them," he said.

As for possible pathways to a free trade agreement that covers the region, Pang said several bilateral or multilateral frameworks already exist in the region, including the ASEAN plus three and the ASEAN plus six and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"As long as these mechanisms contribute to economic integration in the Asia-Pacific and economic development of the region, we take an open and supportive attitude," he said.