Asia-Pacific leaders call for shared trade benefits

APEC SUMMIT WRAPS UP

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Facing deepening fractures in the global trade order, Asia-Pacific leaders adopted a joint declaration that emphasised the need for resilience and shared benefits in trade at the end of the annual APEC summit Saturday.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, hosted by South Korea this year, unfolded under the shadow of rising geopolitical tensions and aggressive economic strategies - ranging from US tariffs to China's export controls - that have pressured global trade.

Ahead of the gathering, US President Donald Trump announced trade deals with a number of countries, including China and South Korea. But he left before the summit kicked off.

“It is a result of member countries acknowledging, at least to some degree, that it will be difficult to restore a free trade order based on multilateralism and the World Trade Organization," said Heo Yoon, a professor of international trade at Sogang University in Seoul.

"We cannot deny anymore that there is a paradigm shift in the global trade order.”