APEC to Cooperate to Beat Financial Crisis
APEC Summit in Peru Tackles Economic Downturn
Nov 24, 2008
United States President George W. Bush and Asia Pacific leaders have concluded their meeting at a summit in Peru and vowed to “take all necessary economic and financial measures” to resolve the international crisis currently gripping the world.
The twenty-one leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum issued a communique at the conclusion of their two-day meeting in the capital Lima which acknowledged the economic downturn as “one of the most serious economic challenges we have ever faced” and promised APEC nations would “...act quickly and decisively to address the impending global economic slowdown”.
The leaders promised to boost trade and investment to help kick-start the troubled world economy and called for a swift resolution in differences at World Trade Organization (WTO) talks. The APEC leaders also agreed to support the overhaul of the international monetary institutions the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order that countries affected by the crisis could better access much needed assistance loans.
In an unusual move, Peruvian President and host of the summit, Alan Garcia, pressured leaders to include an optimistic opinion of the duration of the financial crisis in a separate statement on the world economy released on the weekend.
The statement included the opinion that “...we are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months” however not all APEC leaders agreed with the assessment. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd distanced himself from the appraisal, describing it as Mr Garcia's opinion.
New Zealand recently-elected prime minister John Key also threw doubt on the time frame, calling it “aspirational”.
“I don't know whether it will be 18 months or not,” he said. “It depends on a number of different factors,” reported New Zealand online magazine Stuff.
The summit is the last official overseas engagement attended by outgoing U.S. president George W. Bush and he continued to pledge to push for a touted trans-Pacific trade pact which would have the potential to open up American markets to key agricultural exporters. The countries expected to be involved in the pact would include US, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia and Peru.
In his last speech as President on foreign soil, Mr Bush called for the world to retain its faith in the free market to return the world to prosperity despite the battering the system had received in the recent slowdown. He made it clear he did not believe more government regulation was necessary.
“The greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market - it is too much,”he said.
However Chinese President Hu Jintao appeared to contradict President Bush by calling for a “a new international financial order” which would include “fair, just, inclusive and orderly” financial regulations.
 |
