By Sayo Sasaki
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, (PNA/Kyodo) — Ministers of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday called for further economic integration in the region in their joint statement as talks on key regional free trade agreements continued on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“We reaffirm our commitment to achieve a Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, including by continuing APEC’s work to provide leadership and intellectual input into the process of regional economic integration,” said the statement adopted at the end of the two-day meeting of the trade and foreign ministers.
“We agreed to enhance communication among RTAs/FTAs, as well as increase the capacity of APEC economies to engage in substantive negotiations,” it said.
The statement, however, did not mention the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations under way on the sidelines of the meeting or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations launched earlier this year with 16 economies.
Both frameworks were mentioned in the April APEC ministerial statement that called for information sharing on regional free trade frameworks.
The adoption of the ministerial statement came a day after U.S. President Barack Obama told Indonesia he will not travel to the country for the APEC and TPP summits next week, fanning concerns that the absence of the head of the world’s largest economy could affect the unity of the APEC meeting and take away some of the momentum for concluding the TPP negotiations.
The ministers also said they remain committed to refraining from making new trade and investment barriers and said, “We recommended that our leaders extend through the end of 2016 our standstill commitment to fight against protectionist measures and our resolve to roll back protectionist and trade distorting measures.”
The latest ministerial statement also reiterated the commitment to achieving the “Bogor Goals” to free up trade and investment in the region by 2020 and showed support for a multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, urging countries to deliver success at the ninth ministers’ conference of the WTO to be held in December in Bali.
The stalemate of trade talks under the WTO has brought a new wave of movements to conclude regional free trade agreements in the region, including the negotiations for the TPP and RCEP, both involving many of the APEC economies.
The 12 countries involved in the TPP talks, who are also APEC members, have been holding a series of meetings since Tuesday on the margins of the APEC forum, as they aim to conclude a deal within the year to create a free trade zone covering a third of world trade.
Among other issues dealt with at the meeting, the APEC members discussed empowerment of women and enhancing the competitiveness of small and midsize enterprises and improving supply chain performance.
The ministerial meeting will be followed by the annual APEC summit on Monday and Tuesday, where leaders will hold discussions based on the joint ministerial statement.
Obama will skip the summit due to the partial shutdown of the U.S. government over a budget impasse. From Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to attend the sessions.
APEC consists of Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, the United States and seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Its members account for roughly half of the world’s economic output.