The first thing APEC can do is to make sure regional economies and markets stay open. Recent financial instability and the role of hedge funds and short-term money flows have revived fears of globalisation. By opening their borders to the free flow of goods, services and capital, governments, it is sometimes said, have cost their people jobs and surrendered their countries' sovereignty. Others say open markets are all very well in good times, but in bad time we need to raise barriers to protect ourselves. APEC must stand against that view.
Open markets provide the opportunity for economic growth and the enormous benefits from it.
The worst possible response to the crisis would be to put up the shutters. That would result in competition to raise tariffs and barriers within the region and outside. We saw the consequences of this sort of policy in the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1994 in Indonesia, APEC leaders committed themselves to free trade and investment in the region. That commitment helped bring the Uruguay Round of the GATT to a successful conclusion, and the implementation of binding agreements to reduce trade barriers around the globe.