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Pacific Rim Leaders Call for World Trade Talks

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) is calling for a resumption of the world trade talk in order to discuss a proposal for a region-wide free-trade agreement. The 21-memboring countries` leaders are to meet in Hanoi November 18th-19th in order to discuss the trade negotiations. The Vietnamese deputy foreign minister, Le Cong Phung, was quoted saying that the discussions in Hanoi may be APEC`s leaders` last chance to "save the Doha round". The Doha round collapsed last August due to discrepancies between the US and the EU on farm subsidies and other issues.

This weekend will bring some of the world`s most powerful leaders together in order to discuss the future of business and trade in the important region. 60% of the global economy is situated in the Pacific Rim. The talks hosted in Vietnam will include such leaders as US president George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Although the feeling of pessimism is quite obvious and is due to the deadlock the last round of talks reached in Doha but the leaders have decided to issue a stand-alone statement calling for "strong determination" in resuming the negotiations and settling the differences that haven?t been bridged in the Doha round.

APEC nations include some of the world`s richest and poorest economies opening the region to free trade has many financial incentives to all countries in the rim. One of these countries is Vietnam, which is soon to become the world`s 150th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and is seriously hoping that the talks in Hanoi bare fruit and allow the growing economy to expand its markets faster and more efficiently.