Leaders of twenty-one major economies
discussed how to keep momentum of free trade in Lima, Peru. The Leaders
Declaration of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countered every kind of
protectionism, based on the notion that the world biggest economy turned its
back to free trade. Unexpectedly being the frontrunner of Trans-Pacific
Partnership without a major follower, Japan insisted on the merit of free trade
to protect its domestic interest in manufacturing.
Trump effect could also be seen in this international
meeting, because the policies of United States President-elect Donald Trump
were against the achievements of APEC, making anyone hard to imagine that Trump
is going to be in a picture with other leaders of APEC one year later.
“Following the path established in the Beijing Roadmap for APEC’s Contribution
to the Realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in 2014,
we reiterate our commitment to the eventual realization of the FTAAP as a major
instrument to further deepen APEC’s regional economic integration agenda,” says
the declaration.
APEC insisted on its effort to maintain
fundamental structure of international trade. “We remain committed to using all
policy tools – monetary, fiscal and structural – individually and collectively,
to strengthen global demand and address supply constraints,” the declaration tells.
“At the same time, we acknowledge that economies need to reach out to all
sectors of our societies to better explain the benefits of trade, investment
and open markets, and to ensure that those benefits are widely distributed,”
adds the declaration.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe worked
for maintaining momentum of TPP. “TPP produces free and just economic sphere.
The benefit of free trade, in which effort brings reward, will be realized by
the nations,” stressed Abe in the meeting. Not mentioning economic gap among
the people in Japan, Abe required the leaders to make effort for persuading the
people who believed in a theory that free trade worsened income gap among the
people.
But, the news report rather focused on the
interest of other leaders in the diplomatic debut of Trump in the meeting with
Abe last week. “That was a shower of questions from other leaders,” told the
assistant of Abe in the delegate of Japan. The eagerness of Abe to have the
first meeting with Trump was ironically an approach to an incoming leader who upheld
determined protectionism.
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