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Restoring Confidence Key
Trade ministers from APEC member economies vowed to work hard to prepare for the forthcoming economic leaders' meeting and help send a strong signal of confidence in the world economy and support for a new round of trade liberalization talks.
"Our job is to put the wheels under the wagon so that economic leaders can push it forward," New Zealand Minister of Trade Negotiations Jim Sutton told APEC Today.
He said he is confident that the ongoing ministerial meeting will make it ready for economic leaders to "push the wagon forward."
Canadian Minister for International Trade Pierre Pettigrew also said he hopes the Shanghai APEC economic leaders' meeting will be able to send a strong message of support for the launch of a new round of World Trade Organization talks.
"Indeed, the APEC meeting is very timely for sending a message of confidence in the world economy," he said.
Pettigrew said the world economy was already slowing down before the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and it is evident that the attacks will probably deepen the slowdown.
"That is why it becomes even more important today that we launch a new WTO round of negotiations to bring the stimulus that the world economy needs," he said.
Pettigrew said WTO, the global trade club, is more important today than ever.
A World Bank study shows that the economies that have been most actively participating in liberalization in the past 20 years are the economies that have experienced the best economic development, he said.
Sutton cautioned governments against setting up trade barriers to protect domestic industries in the face of an economic downturn.
He urged them to learn from Asian economies, which lived through the 1997 financial tumult by "trading in the same way."
But Sutton said he didn't yet foresee a depression and hopefully this would be just a small downturn in world economic growth.
Pettigrew said a sign and demonstration of confidence in the world economic system are more important today than before the September 11 attacks for both economic and political reasons.
He said APEC should demonstrate that the attacks and terrorism will not win over a sound rule-based system and people will believe in open societies.
"I think APEC membership is a very diversified one that can send a very positive signal that developed and developing economies of the APEC community are committed to the launch of the new round," he added.
"Canada believes that we have to do a lot of individual activities and we have already been carrying out a number of bilateral initiatives supported by the Canadian International Development Agency," said Pettigrew.
He revealed Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien will announce a five-year multi-million Canadian dolloar initiative in capacity building for APEC economies into the WTO without giving further details.
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