SINGAPORE RAISES CONCERN OVER INCREASING PROTECTIONISM

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Singapore Wednesday raised grave concern over
increasing protectionism in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)
economies, which if not stopped would put the grouping into a dangerous
situation.

"It is a slippery slope and if we are not careful, before we know it, all of
us will be in much dire situation," Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told
reporters after the informal Apec foreign ministers meeting here.

He said the ministers discussed specific issues including the current
economic crisis, the importance of macroeconomic coordination, reform of
financial institutions, and most importantly, resisting protectionism.

Yeo said they also talked about the regional architecture and everyone
agreed that Apec was very important to bring all four corners of the Pacific
together and how it would help them secured another generation of peace which
would lead further development and economic progress for all.

The minister also said that the meeting was in consensus in that the world
economic crisis was not over yet.

He said the upturn that the world was experiencing now was only a respite as
the situation was still fragile and they still needed to address the root causes
of the problem.

Asked about what were the specifics of post-recovery strategies been
discussed, Yeo said they only discussed the economic challenges in general but
it affirmed the importance of the G-20 process and the importance of Apec
working together with the G-20.

He also said that in the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
stressed the importance of closing the developmental gap, in particular, the
importance of keeping an eye on food security because that was so fundamental.
-- BERNAMA