The meeting of ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group preceded the Apec Economic Leaders’ meeting, which takes place today and tomorrow.
Alan Bollard, executive director of the Apec Secretariat, said in a statement: “The need for a new, progressive direction for globalisation and trade that opens up job creation, enhances social mobility and increases wages is up against a diminishing appetite for policies that could foster this outcome.”
Apec’s 21 economies are home to 3 billion people and account for half of global trade, and its push for freer trade has made the region more prosperous in recent decades.
But there is a sense that the prosperity is not evenly felt among some segments of the population – especially those left behind by disruptive technology. It has fuelled anti-globalisation sentiments and the rise of political leaders opposed to opening up trade, the most recent of whom is US President-elect Donald Trump.