Trade pact given APEC support
In what Chinese President Xi Jinping called a historic step, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members agreed on Nov 11 to launch an effort to build a regional free trade framework.
Leaders of the 21 member economies agreed in Beijing to start work on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. Xi praised the agreement as a show of APEC's willingness to advance regional integration.
APEC member economies will begin studying issues surrounding the free trade area and will submit recommendations by the end of 2016, according to a statement released after a two-day meeting of APEC leaders.
The new free trade area comes as the Washington-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiation has stalled due to disagreement between the US and Japan over agricultural tariffs.
Meanwhile, APEC members adopted a blueprint on Nov 11 to strengthen physical, institutional and people-to-people connectivity and promote regional bonds. The blueprint asks members to make substantive moves and meet agreed-upon targets by 2025.
| Leaders at the APEC meeting in Beijing on Nov 11. Pictured are President Xi Jinping (center, front), US President Barack Obama (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right), and in the back are Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. Wu Zhiyi / China Daily |
(China Daily European Weekly 11/14/2014 page3)
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