. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/L/740 
28 November 2008 
 
 (08-5837) 
 Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
 
 
LIMA APEC LEADERS' STATEMENT ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY 
22 November 2008 
  
 The following communication, dated 24 N ovember 2008, has been received from the 
Delegation of Peru with the request that it be circulated to Members.  
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 We, the APEC Economic Leaders, began our 16th Meeting in Peru on 22 November with a 
discussion on the impact of the global financial cr isis and the actions APEC members are taking, 
individually and collectively, to restore confiden ce in our economies and maintain our region on a 
path of long-term growth.   
 We are convinced that we can overcome this cr isis in a period of eighteen months. We have 
already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth and promote investment and consumption. We  will continue to take such steps, and work 
closely, in a coordinated and comprehensive mann er, to implement future actions to address this 
crisis. We will also support efforts by export credit agencies, international financial institutions (IFIs) 
and private banks to ensure that adequate fina nce is available to business, including small and 
medium-sized enterprises, and to keep trad e and investment flowing in the region. 
  The current situation highlights the importanc e of ongoing financial sector reform in our 
economies and the valuable role played by APEC ’s financial sector capacity building work. We 
welcome continued development and innovation in the financial sector  and believe that as financial 
systems deepen and become more complex, regulator y and supervisory tools must be more effective. 
The crisis also highlights the need to develop mo re effective standards of corporate governance and 
risk management as well as the importance of so cial responsibility in the financial sector. 
  We welcome the Washington Declaration of the leaders of the Group of Twenty at their 
Summit on Financial Markets and the World Econo my and strongly support the common principles 
that will guide the Action Plan for financial market s reform. In this regard, we strongly support the 
broad policy response needed to restore global economic growth and stability through: closer 
macroeconomic cooperati on; avoiding negative spillovers; supporting emerging and developing 
economies; and comprehensively reforming and strengt hening the IFIs to reflect the increasing voice 
and representation of emerging and developing ec onomies and be more responsive to future 
challenges. We reiterate our firm belief that free market principles, and open trade and investment 
regimes, will continue to drive global gr owth, employment and poverty reduction.  
  We recognize that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Developmen t Bank and other multilate ral development banks 
have a critical role in assisting economies affected by the financial crisis and require sufficient and 
readily available resources. The IMF, with its fo cus on surveillance, should strengthen collaboration WT/L/740 
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  with other IFIs, enhancing efforts to integrate regulatory and supervisory responses into the macro-
prudential policy framework and conduct early wa rning exercises. We endorse the APEC Finance 
Ministers’ encouragement for our economies, where a pplicable, to participate in the IMF/World Bank 
Financial Sector Assessment Program taking into account the level of development and the specific 
conditions of each member economy. 
 
 There is a risk that slower world growth coul d lead to calls for protectionist measures which 
would only exacerbate the current economic situa tion. In this regard, we strongly support the 
Washington Declaration and will refrain within th e next 12 months from raising new barriers to 
investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing 
World Trade Organization (WTO) inconsistent measures in all areas, including those that stimulate 
exports. We seek an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Agenda 
negotiations to provide the basis for our economies to  grow and prosper. We are committed to reach 
agreement on modalities next month on the basis of pr ogress made to date and we direct our Ministers 
to meet in Geneva in December to achieve that objective. We and our Ministers are intensifying our 
engagement with WTO counterparts to create the convergence necessary to achieve this outcome. 
  We reaffirm our commitment to the Bogor Goal s of free and open trade and investment in the 
Asia-Pacific as a key organizing principle and driv ing force for APEC. We instruct APEC Ministers 
and officials to accelerate implementation of the measures contained in our Regional Economic Integration Agenda, including a possible Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific as a long-term prospect 
and intensifying work on structural reform. The curre nt growth crisis will not shake our determination 
to address the important challenges facing the regi on including climate ch ange, energy security and 
clean development, and the fight against poverty, hunger, disease and terrorism. We will stand by our 
international commitments in these areas, includi ng in Official Development Assistance and the 
Millennium Development Goals. 
 
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