Participants at the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, being held from Friday to Saturday in Suzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province, look forward to progress in trade cooperation and maintaining stability across the region and beyond.
The gathering comes at a time when governments and companies alike are trying to navigate geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. Chairing the opening ceremony, Li Chenggang, China's international trade representative and vice minister of commerce, called on member economies to keep opening up and guide the Asia-Pacific economy through challenges.
"During the Asian financial crisis, the Kuala Lumpur Declaration reaffirmed the push for trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. During the global financial crisis, the Lima Declaration pledged not to introduce new trade barriers for the following 12 months. That is the value of the APEC platform, and the founding spirit member economies should continue to uphold," said Li.
While concerns remain over global uncertainty, many delegates see the meeting as a platform where economic cooperation takes the center stage, and where support for free and open multilateral trade is reaffirmed.
"Korea believes in free, open trade and also multilateral trade with the WTO at its core. So I think in APEC there are many like-minded countries really kind of putting trade at the center of their economic strategies. So Korea is looking forward to working with these like-minded countries in APEC," said South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo.
"Because we are so dependent on global trade, and any initiative and any signal that there's cooperation, stability and openness to trade and investment is good for Singapore," said Grace Fu, Singapore's Minister for Sustainability and the Environment.
New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay highlighted that discussions on regional integration, rule-making, and rule-compliance have proven to be highly effective and remain of vital importance.
"China and New Zealand, through our free trade agreement, have shown what can happen between two economies when you have very clear rules and and you respect them. Our trade has gone from a few billion dollars to now be worth more than 40 billion New Zealand dollars every year," McClay said.
China previously hosted APEC trade ministers' meetings in 2001 and 2014.
The 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, in November.
APEC member economies look forward to progress in trade cooperation, maintaining stability
