APEC to move quickly on crisis

APEC to move quickly on crisis

SINGAPORE (AP): Pacific Rim nations will act quickly over the
next 10 months to produce a credible response to the economic
crisis, while moving forward on trade liberalization, an official
said Tuesday.

With a shorter-than-usual time frame between annual Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation summits, "we are getting moving
quickly on dealing with the social impacts of the crisis," said
Timothy Hannah of New Zealand, the new executive director of the
APEC Secretariat.

Building employment and taking care of the poor are very
important, Hannah said in a briefing for diplomats and
journalists about the work APEC will do before the leaders'
meeting next September in Auckland.

For example, he said, Chile and Mexico have already initiated
a program to help APEC member nations reform pension funds.

Hannah said that the attitude of leaders at the APEC meeting
in Kuala Lumpur in November "proves that obvious protectionism
has not taken hold, as might be expected when times are bad."

APEC's response to the crisis is "to focus on capacity
building to support structural changes needed to strengthen
markets and proceed to recovery."

He said there are no targets for reducing unemployment rates
or raising certain numbers of people from poverty, but APEC
countries would share ideas, work to reduce restrictions on
trade, and ease the environment for cross-border business.

New Zealand, which chairs the group until next September, will
push for progress on mutual recognition of food standards within
APEC, he said. Also, priority will be given to small and medium
businesses, seen as the major driving force in many Asia-Pacific
economies.