APEC trade ministers began meeting here today to discuss ways of clinching a global liberalisation deal in 2010 with signs that major recession-hit economies may be on the mend.
Officials said the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting is the largest gathering of trade ministers so far in 2009 and follows a new consensus among key players to wrap up the Doha round of world trade talks next year.
"One of the advantages of the APEC meetings has always been the opportunity for us to meet informally within the APEC group and then also informally bilaterally and in small groups," said Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu.
"So we will be using a lot of opportunities, not just inside the meeting but outside of the meetings, to be able to discuss and identify the specific issues," she told AFP in an interview yesterday.
The eight-year-old Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations aimed at tearing down trade barriers is among the items that will be discussed during the APEC meeting, the Indonesian minister said.
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The meeting in Singapore comes just after a G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy where leaders of the world's most powerful nations and emerging economies agreed to wrap up the Doha talks by 2010.