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Trade ministers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting have agreed to officially start work on creating a regional free trade area, Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said on Saturday.
"If it is approved at the leader's meeting, it will mean a concrete and substantive step forward for establishing the Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific," Gao said at a news briefing after the two-day APEC ministerial meeting.
Beijing has been actively pushing for the creation of the FTAAP to fully unleash the region's economic power. The move has been widely viewed as China's response to the rise of a series of bilateral free trade agreements and large regional economic frameworks such as the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership in the region.
Gao called the endorsement from APEC members on creating the FTAAP a milestone event as it shifts the role of APEC from an incubator of ideas to concrete action.
The two-day ministerial meeting will pave the way for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, which will start on Monday and gather top leaders from the United States, China, Japan and other APEC members.
Gao said the APEC members have reached consensus on the Beijing road map for establishing the FTAAP, which includes launching a joint comprehensive study, setting up a communication mechanism, building negotiation capabilities and drafting rules to promote trade and investment.
The proposal to establish an Asia-Pacific free trade area was first brought up in 2006 at the APEC meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. The initiative has been discussed in every APEC forum since then, but no major breakthrough has been achieved.
"Each APEC member has hoped the FTAAP could be launched soon so as to bring benefit to enterprises and peoples in the region," Gao said.
At Saturday's news briefing, Gao also said that APEC members have agreed to support a multilateral trade system, hoping to break the impasse on the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization as soon as possible and to accelerate efforts to carry out the Bali Package reached last year.
Roberto Azevedo, WTO's director-general, echoed Gao, urging all WTO members to intensify their efforts to find a solution to the difficult situation the organization is facing.
"Any move toward trade liberalization and facilitation is a great move to create economic momentum. ... We hope all countries could continue to help implement the Bali agreement in a comprehensive and balanced way." he said.
Azevedo said growing political divergence has affected the world's poorest and smallest countries first, and major economies are responsible to enhance their efforts to search for solutions to help create a fair trading environment and further support multilateral trading proposals.
