The ministers and heads of finance of the 21 countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) see with "moderate optimism" the trade agreement being negotiated by the United States and China to bring a truce to the trade war, which could be signed in Chile in November.
This was stated on Tuesday by Chilean Finance Minister Felipe Larraín during the APEC Finance Ministers' meeting, a prelude to the leaders' summit to be held in Santiago on November 16 and 17.
At that meeting, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to sign a partial agreement to end the trade war. pitting the world's two largest economic powers against each other, a topic that has sparked the interest of APEC finance officials meeting in the Chilean capital.
"This is great news, we have no doubt about it. In fact, we even mentioned as one of the conclusions of our meeting that the projections we saw today are some with an agreement and others without an agreement between the United States and China.", Larraín said.
According to the Chilean Finance Minister, representatives of the 21 APEC countries considered that it would be "very significant" that the agreement be signed in Santiago in November and qualified the moderate optimism with which they await the resolution of the conflict.
"One thing is the approach, the good intention and the idea of signing it, and another thing is that it is signed. There is a certain amount of skepticism, natural in some, that this will actually be signed here. We hope that it will be so., Larraín said.
The Chilean minister was joined by New Zealand's Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who stressed the importance for his country of ending the trade war between the United States and China.
«For a small country like New Zealand, having a rules-based trading system is vital and the disruption caused by the US-China dispute is why we understand the importance of resolving it., he said.
Robertson said he would be "delighted" to see the first step of a truce signed at the APEC leaders' summit, but stressed that there was still a long way to go before the issue was fully resolved.
The meeting of finance ministers and leaders of APEC countries will conclude on Tuesday with a joint statement containing the main conclusions of the meeting.
The economies that make up APEC are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China; Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
Source: Reuters
Talks between APEC economies continue on Tuesday 15th on the second day of the Ministerial Meeting within the framework of Finance Week. Watch some of the best moments here. #APECFinance2019 #RoadToTheSummit #APECChile2019 pic.twitter.com/iqcEEQPVxa
— APECChile2019 (@APECChile2019) October 15, 2019
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
