By Sohn JiAe
Photos = Cheong Wa Dae

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders adopted the Da Nang Declaration on Nov. 11, the outcome of the two-day APEC Summit in Vietnam, which reaffirms their support for a multilateral trading system.

During the two-day summit, 21 APEC leaders, including President Moon Jae-in, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin, shared their thoughts and talks about ways to further cooperate across five agenda items.

Those were: to promote sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth; deepen regional economic integration; realize the full potential of the business sector, particularly micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises; enhance food security and sustainable agriculture; and, lastly, foster a shared future of a peaceful, stable, dynamic, inter-connected and prosperous Asia-Pacific community.



The Da Nang Declaration, the outcome of their two days of constructive talks, underlines APEC’s crucial role in support of a rules-based, free, open, fair, transparent and inclusive multilateral trading system, with the goal of “creating new dynamism and fostering a shared future,” which was also the theme of the Da Nang summit.

The statement stresses APEC’s commitment to attaining the Bogor Goals, agreed upon in 1994, for free and open trade and investment in the Asia- Pacific region by 2020, while carrying out further actions to promote an enabling and conducive environment for investment across the region.

Following the adoption, Cheong Wa Dae announced that, “The declaration includes much of what President Moon outlined at the summit, such as APEC-level enhanced cooperation on pursuing a people-focused economy -- one of our administration’s key goals -- enhanced inclusiveness in trading and a re-commitment to fighting protectionism.”

jiae5853@korea.kr