Regional Economic Integration Key Priority for APEC in 2009

Singapore 16 March 2009 - "There is a strong consensus that restrictions on trade and investment will only deepen and prolong the economic downturn," says Ravi Menon, APEC 2009 Chair of the Senior Officials' Meeting.

For the first time ever, APEC Singapore 2009 has brought together APEC Senior Officials and Finance Officials for a joint dialogue. Among them, it was widely agreed that the fiscal, monetary, and credit facilitative measures by inpidual APEC economies have spillover effects on other economies.

Specifically, officials:

• Considered the problem of trade financing and the measures taken by various economies to facilitate trade financing;
• Expressed concern over the rise in pressure to implement protectionist measures;
• Agreed to draw on the WTO mechanism to monitor trade policy and inputs from the APEC Business Advisory Council as the basis for a report on compliance with the Leaders' commitment in Lima;
• Agreed that the best contribution to sustaining growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the mid-term would be through accelerating regional economic integration.

This is an excerpt of a more extensive summary, which can be found at the APEC 2009 Singapore website at: www.apec2009.sg