APEC leaders make pledges against protectionism

APEC leaders make pledges against protectionism. November. 22, 2016 07:12. by Hyong-gwon Pu bookum90@donga.com.

Ministers from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies adopted the Joint Statement reaffirming their pledges to reject all types of protectionism and to protect the free trade on Sunday (local time). Experts said that the joint statement can be considered as an anti-trump announcement, targeting U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Trump promised to repeal the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to declare China a currency manipulator during his presidential campaign.

The 24th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting was held in Lima, Peru under the theme of Quality Growth and Human Development and the leaders announced that there was increasing doubts about the integration process caused by globalization and we were facing challenges from a rise in protectionism globally in the joint statement. The leaders also said that they would restrain from competitive currency deval‎uation (reducing the value of their exchange rate) and would not adjust the currency value for competition and stressed, “We reaffirm the pledge made by our Leaders against protectionism to roll back protectionist and trade-distorting measures, which weaken trade and slow down the progress and recovery of the international economy.”

With regard to progress on the multilateral trading system, the APEC leaders approved a Collective Strategic Study on issues related to the Realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) and summary report. China had worked hard on the realization of the FTAAP for years. It seems that the FTAAP led by China would receive some momentum, instead of the U.S.-led TPP, which could be scrapped with the Trump’s win of the presidency.