The free trade flows within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have fostered stronger economic growth in the region and allowed consumer more choices, said Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, on Wednesday.
Pedrosa highlighted that many countries in the Asia-Pacific continue to create a more unified regional economy, speaking in an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG) ahead of the convening of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Gyeongju in the Republic of Korea on Friday.
"We're seeing so much trade around the region. The percentage of trade to GDP for many of these economies is exceptionally high. So trade flows are always very important. So what does it mean? It means we're just continuing the growth of integration. We'll find different ways of developing this. We're trading in different things today. A great example is in renewable energies, in EV cars, for example. China has been very good, I think, in producing electric vehicles. So you see more and more of those on the streets of, where I live in, in Singapore. But we also have a choice, through trade, of which car we like. And that's the beauty of an open market," he said.
China has been vigorously advancing trade with other APEC countries. In the first three quarters of 2025, the country's merchandise trade with other APEC economies grew by 2 percent year on year, totaling 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars.
Trade flows within APEC enhance economic growth, consumer choices: official
