Protectionism prevents APEC declaration

The imposition of protectionist and unilateral views was the main reason for the failure to release a joint declaration at the 26th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, said State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

For the first time, the gathering - which concluded on Sunday in Papua New Guinea - ended without all parties agreeing on a final declaration.

Wang said in an online statement on late Monday that this was mainly due to individual economies insisting on imposing verbiage onto other parties, and the former did not accept reasonable revisions proposed by China and other parties.