Singapore official: APEC to shape role in dealing with crisis

SINGAPORE (Xinhua) — The role and relevance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the regional and global architecture will be shaped by how it deals with the current crisis and its aftermath, a Singapore official today.

APEC 2009 will begin to address the issue of how to make growth more inclusive, so as to seize the opportunities created by globalization while ensuring that its benefits are more widely shared in our economies, said Ravi Menon, Second Permanent Secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and APEC 2009 chair of the senior officials’ meeting.

Looking forward, Menon warned that there are new, emerging forms of protectionism, like “buy local” and “lend local,” which are hard to detect and harder still to combat.

“Protectionism is a grave threat that APEC must address, to ensure that the hard-won benefits of trade and investment liberalization over the last 20 years are not rolled back,” Menon said in an APEC Study Centers Consortium Conference.

He further cautioned that the current crisis has caused many to see free trade and open markets as worsening income inequality, while exposing the economy to periodic external shocks resulting in job losses and industry dislocations.

According to Menon, APEC has succeeded in reducing average tariffs in the Asia-Pacific region by two-thirds, from 17 percent in 1989 to 5.5 percent in 2004. Intra-APEC merchandise trade has grown five-fold from $1.7 trillion in 1989 to $8.4 trillion in 2007.

Singapore is playing host to the APEC meetings held from February to November 2009. They will culminate in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, where leaders of APEC’s 21 member economies will meet in Singapore from Nov. 14-15 this year.