APEC leaders pledge to engage in free trade practices

APEC leaders pledge to engage in free trade practices

Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on Sunday committed to adopting measures to encourage free trade pacts between the 21 member-economies and slowly lift restrictions that encourage protectionism.

The declaration in Yokohama overcame serious differences over currency controls and instead focused on increasing investments and multilateral trade in the region in the coming years.

In addition, the United States, Russia, Japan and China also agreed in principle to cut trade deficits and government borrowings and to monitor spikes in exchange rates.

The U.S. has been critical with other economies, with China in particular, which it said was engaged in unfair currency manipulation. But that issue seems to be overshadowed at least for now about the need to expand free trade principles, one of the goals that the APEC was built for. The group also sees the need to cooperate closer to mount a faster recovery from the global financial crisis.

“We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to achieving free and open trade and investment in the region,” a joint declaration by APEC members said. The APEC is responsible for more than 50 percent of global trade.

Specifically, the group unveiled a plan to set up a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific in the future. This could be based on existing trade partnerships like the Trans-Pacific Partnership which was started by the United States. They also vowed to freeze export stimulants and new trade barriers until 2013.

The “Yokohama Vision” acknowledged that some of the barriers were put up by some countries to protect their economies from the negative effects of the financial crisis but said they were willing to backtrack on those changes.

“We commit to take steps to roll back trade distorting measures introduced during the crisis,” the statement said.

Posted by James Fried on Sunday November 14 2010, 5:15 PM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0