APEC Leaders Vow to Maintain Free Trade System

Lima, Peru, Nov. 16 (Jiji Press)--Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining and strengthening the free trade system amid growing concerns over the spread of protectionism.

"We acknowledge the importance of, and will continue to work to deliver a free, open, fair, nondiscriminatory, transparent, inclusive and predictable trade and investment environment," the leaders of the 21-member APEC said in a statement adopted at the end of their two-day summit in Lima, Peru.

The APEC leaders also said, "We reaffirm our support for the rules-based multilateral trading system."

In a separate statement, the APEC leaders said the group will analyze areas of divergence and convergence in existing free trade agreements to promote work on a proposed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, or FTAAP. APEC will review the analysis in 2030.

On the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a chair's statement said, "Some economies considered that these issues have an impact on the global economy and could be treated in APEC, while other economies do not believe that APEC is a forum to discuss these issues."

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