WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/L/766 
28 July 2009 
 (09-3663) 
 Original:   English 
  
 
MEETING OF APEC MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR TRADE 
 
Statement on Addressing the Economic Cr isis and Positioning for Recovery
 
Issued by APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade  
 
Singapore, 21 – 22 July 2009  
 
Communication from Singapore 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 27 July 2009, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Singapore.  
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 We, the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trad e, met in Singapore from 21-22 July 2009.  
  The global economy appears to be bottoming out, but the outlook remains uncertain and significant risks remain. We will therefore persist wi th efforts to support growth and facilitate trade 
and investment flows, keep our markets open, a nd give a new push to concluding the Doha Round. 
Looking beyond the current economic crisis, we will accelerate our efforts to integrate the Asia-
Pacific region, and ensure that our growth  strategies are inclusive and sustainable. 
 
Addressing the Economic Crisis 
 
 Sustaining trade and investment flows remains critical to our future prosperity. The main 
threats to a revival of trade flows include risi ng protectionist pressures, and continued delay in 
concluding the Doha Round.   Concluding the Doha Round by 2010 will be the most effective way to resist protectionism 
and strengthen the multilateral trading system. We had frank and open discussions on some of the key 
outstanding issues and the steps n ecessary to accelerate the end-game negotiations of the Doha Round 
for the second half of 2009. We will:  
- build on the good progress already made in  the negotiations in 2008 and the positive 
political momentum created by recent Ministerial gatherings; 
- accelerate efforts to conclude modalities in Agriculture and NAMA, including Special 
Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) and Sectorals, while  advancing, in parallel, the negotiations 
in Services, Rules, Trade Facilitation and all other remaining issues; 
- utilise all possible avenues of engagement, including bilateral and plurilateral, to 
encourage greater transparency and understa nding of what is on the table to fill the 
remaining gaps in the negotiations as soon as possible;  
- provide clear political direction to senior offi cials to exercise maximum flexibility in the 
negotiations; and WT/L/766 
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  - direct senior officials to meet in Geneva to ensure direct engagement within the WTO so 
that progress can be made prior to the Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009. 
  APEC Leaders undertook in November 2008 to re frain till end 2009 from raising new barriers 
to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing 
WTO inconsistent measures in all areas, including th ose that stimulate exports. With this in mind, we 
discussed the specific trade, fiscal and monetary measures undertaken by APEC economies since the 
outbreak of the crisis, based on reports from the WTO and APEC Business Advisory Council 
(ABAC). We agree to:   
 - design our policy responses to the crisis, in cluding fiscal policy and action in support of 
the financial sector, in a manner that minimises distortion to trade and investment; 
 - extend the above commitment for another year  (i.e. until 2010) and st and ready to extend 
this further, if necessary; 
 - promptly notify the WTO of any measu res that fall short of these commitments; 
 - exercise maximum restraint in implementing measures that may be considered to be 
WTO consistent if they have a significant pr otectionist effect and to promptly rectify 
such measures where implemented; 
 - regularly review our commitment to free trade and open markets, based on input from the 
WTO and ABAC; and 
 - keep our markets open and continue to redu ce barriers to trade and investment, using the 
crisis as an opportunity for reform. 
 
Positioning for Recovery  
 
 We will position the Asia-Pacific region for a strong and sustained recovery. 
 
 We will strengthen the region’s competitiv eness by accelerating our economic integration 
efforts. We reaffirm our comm itment towards achieving the Bogor  Goals. We will continue to 
examine building blocks towards a possible Free Trade Area of the Asia -Pacific (FTAAP) as a long-
term prospect, and welcome the progress made in deepening anal ysis and identifying possible 
vehicles for an FTAAP. 
 
 We will take a comprehensive view of regi onal economic integration. We will accelerate 
trade “a t the border”  with simpler customs documentation pr ocedures and facilitation of cross-border 
services trade. We will focus our efforts to  reduce or remove regulatory impediments “behind the 
border”  to make it easier, faster and cheaper to do business. We will improve connectivity “across 
the border”  by identifying the chokepoints in trade logi stics and reviewing logistics policies with the 
aim of improving regional supply chains.    We remain unwavering in our shared belief that trade and investment liberalisation is a key engine for growth. However, we recognise that not all segments of society have benefited from 
globalisation. We will therefore promote growth that  is more inclusive, where the benefits of free 
trade and investment are shared more broadly. Th is will build a stronger consensus for further trade 
and investment liberalisation. APEC will devel op an agenda for inclusive growth, focused on 
broadening access to opportunities. This entails facilitating economic restructuring to make our 
economies more resilient and adaptable, and strengt hening social resilience to provide better security 
for the vulnerable segments of our society.
 
 
 We recognise that climate change is a growi ng global challenge and we  will ensure that our 
economic growth strategies are environmentally su stainable. We will use the opportunity provided by 
our domestic stimulus measures to deploy c limate-friendly technologies and encourage energy  WT/L/766 
 Page 3 
 
 
  efficiency. These technologies and efforts can also  create new opportunities for growth. We will study 
how trade can be enhanced in ways that will ensu re sustainable growth and development within the 
region.   We are confident that the APEC economies w ill emerge stronger and more dynamic from the 
crisis. By keeping our markets open, spurring trad e and investment, and pursuing more inclusive and 
sustainable growth, we will achieve progress a nd prosperity for the Asia-Pacific region. 
 
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