APEC urges new growth model, climate pact progress

"We should use the financial crisis as an opportunity to take a serious look at its root causes," said Hu, whose country expects growth of at least 8 percent this year and was widely credited by other APEC leaders with spearheading the global recovery.

Leaders pledged to pursue reforms that will "gradually unwind global imbalances," and also to put in place regulatory policies that will prevent credit and asset markets from becoming "forces of destabilization."

As it assessed progress on dismantling regional barriers to trade and investment, the group won backing for its long-term goal of creating a free-trade area covering all 21 APEC economies.

Underscoring the American commitment to a region increasingly dominated by China, now the world's third-largest economy and a growing political and military player, Obama announced Washington's interest in joining the Trans-Pacific free-trade partnership.

For now, the gesture is largely symbolic: the grouping now includes only four countries, and Obama's administration has put off work on free-trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama while it deals with domestic economic troubles and the war in Afghanistan, among other issues.

Washington is embroiled in disputes with China over trade in tires, steel and autos, among other products, and is pushing Beijing to loosen controls that it says keep the Chinese currency, the yuan, undervalued.

The yuan's weakness is unwelcome for many countries in the region that compete with Chinese export manufacturers. But the APEC leaders did not mention currency rates in their final statement, despite an earlier call by finance ministers for maintaining "market-oriented exchange rates."

Later Sunday, Obama headed to China, with a first stop in Shanghai, the mainland's commercial and financial capital.

Earlier, he joined a summit with all 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including military-ruled Myanmar. In the unusual face-to-face encounter, Obama told Myanmar's Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A joint statement issued after the summit — the first ever between a U.S. president and ASEAN — devoted an entire paragraph to Myanmar, a major irritant in relations between the two sides.

It urged Myanmar to ensure that 2010 elections are "free, fair, inclusive and transparent," but did not call for the release of political prisoners.

Obama also announced that after next year's APEC forum in Yokohama, Japan, he will host the 2011 gathering in his native Hawaii.

"I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts," he told the leaders Sunday.

1|2

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email