APEC Urges Early New Round of WTO TalksThe APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT), closed Thursday afternoon in Shanghai, released a statement urging the early launch of a new round of talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO) .This is a strong signal sent by the MRT meeting to the whole world for the promotion of the multilateral economic and trade cooperation mechanism. During the two-day meeting, representatives of APEC member economies held in-depth discussions on topics including pursuing an open trade policy and contributing to the multilateral trade system, promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, enhancing economic and technical cooperation, and pushing ahead with the new economy and e-commerce. The member economies of APEC occupy a vital position in the world economic and trade system, and their active standpoint in pushing forward multilateral economic and trade cooperation will play a significant role in the establishment and development of the world multilateral trade system. Some member economies, just recovering from the Asian financial crisis, expressed worries over the sluggish world economic growth, and the new trend of trade regionalism and bilateralism and reemergence of trade protectionism. The APEC member economies reached a consensus during the meeting that there is an urgent need to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, enhance economic and technical cooperation, and support an early launch of a new round of WTO talks in order to overcome the current difficulties and promote further economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region and in the world at large. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and total trade value of APEC members account for 55 percent and 46 percent of the world's total, respectively. Since its foundation in 1989, the economic forum has made active contributions to the promotion of regional and world multilateral economic and trade cooperation. Because of the great differences among the APEC member economies in economic system, development, trade and level of investment liberalization, the balance of interests between the developed and developing members has become a key issue in developing regional multilateral economic and trade cooperation. Patrick O'Brien, parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade of Canada, said, "As we globalize trade more, we can't have losers, and we can't have countries left behind." APEC should take into consideration the interests of each member economy. In particular, the developed economies should give more help to the developing economies through economic and technical cooperation to achieve collective development, said Alexander V.Karpitch from Russia. APEC is now implementing a strategic plan for capacity building, including the first group of six programs, to enhance the capacity of developing APEC economies, to participate in the new round of WTO talks and enforce related WTO agreements. Formulation of the strategic framework of "e-APEC: Building A Digital Society" has been taken into consideration by APEC members, which also stresses pushing forward comprehensive economic and technical cooperation in E-commerce. The Chair's Statement of the MRT Meeting also reaffirms the common prosperity of all the APEC member economies. The statement is of great significance for rebuilding confidence among APEC economies and preserving a healthy and open regional and world trade environment, according to Shi Guangsheng, chair of the MRT Meeting and Chinese minister of foreign trade. Michael Moore, director-general of the WTO, pointed out that APEC plays a crucial role in the WTO, and it offers a good opportunity to APEC members to get their respective stances and demands recognized, which is meaningful for the agenda of launching a new round of multilateral WTO trade negotiations. Almost all the APEC members represented at the meeting believed that APEC will play a more significant role in the new circumstances in maintaining a stable and open economic and trade environment in the region, and promoting a fair and just new world economic order. |
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