What's The Use of Free Trade?
At their annual international get-together, developed countries in APEC demanded faster trade liberalization negotiations. Malaysia dared to take a contradictory line, and crisis-stricken Indonesia is also rather unhappy with the whole idea.
November 20, 2000
They have come and gone for another year. The annual rites of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum are done, at great expense. Twenty-one heads of state attended last week’s meeting in the Nurul Iman palace, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. They have now gone back to their countries with a deal in their pockets. Well, sort of. They agreed to discuss world trade liberalization next year. Will they?
It was an anticlimax to say
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