The photo op was all smiles but inside the meeting room on Wednesday, the Apec Ministerial Meeting broke down over free trade issues. Earlier, Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Trade, Tran Tuan Anh, co-chair of the Apec gathering, expressed in his opening remarks the "determination of Apec in pursuing a free and open region for trade and investment." The focus of the Apec ministerial meeting has been whether unity on free trade will be maintained after a continuing dispute over protectionism meant the previous Apec trade ministers' meeting held in Hanoi in May ended without a joint statement for the first time since 2012. Trump's "America First" policy has stoked concerns about rising protectionism in the form of import restrictions and increased tariffs which could hamper free trade and global growth. At the meeting, the Apec ministers also addressed measures to realize an Apec-wide free trade agreement called a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, covering about half of the world economy and 60 percent of global trade, according to Japanese officials.

Source: Bangkok Post November 08, 2017 17:00 UTC