COMMONWEALTH FINANCE MINISTERS CALL FOR OPEN TRADING SYSTEM

By Neville D'Cruz

MELBOURNE, Sept 3 (Bernama) -- Commonwealth finance ministers have appealed
for an open trading system in the face of the global financial crisis which has
impoverished millions of citizens in smaller member states, it is reported
here.

" The impact of the crisis has been felt very strongly and persistently in
the poorest and smallest developing members as well as resource-dependent and
less diversified economies," they said yesterday at the end of a three-day
meeting at the coastal resort of Limassol in Cypriot.

" These economies are especially vulnerable to lower trade levels and
capital flows and restricted in their ability to use domestic policy to
alleviate the impact of exogenous economic shocks," the ministers said in a
final statement.

They called for "continued global commitment to an open trading system and
the rejection of protectionism".

The finance ministers discussed "the appalling human cost of the current
economic crisis in many low-income countries ...

" Despite the greater resilience provided in these countries through
strengthened policy frameworks, many millions of Commonwealth citizens have
fallen into poverty as a result of the crisis," they warned.

The grouping of Britain and 52 former colonies and territories, including
Malaysia and Singapore, also "stressed the need for greater international
support for these countries to build greater resilience in the face of these
shocks".

Ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Trinidad on
November 27, they called for "continued global macroeconomic coordination
including monetary and fiscal policy stimulus to avoid a return to global
recession and to ensure that global growth is well established".
--BERNAMA