Detroit: Trade ministers of the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum member economies finished their two-day meeting in Detroit through Friday without adopting a joint statement, as Russia and China stood against proposed wordings about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

APEC trade ministers also failed to issue a joint statement at their meeting in Bangkok in May last year.

Advanced countries including Japan and the United State, which have been calling for the strengthening of economic sanctions against Russia as well as the establishment of supply chains with a view to reducing their dependence on China, came into even deeper conflict with Russia and China.

The latest development once again exposed that the APEC framework has become dysfunctional, with member economies staying divided.

The United States, this year’s APEC chair, issued a chair’s statement in place of a joint ministerial statement.

“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine,” the chair’s statement said. “There were other views and different assessments of the situation.” These expressions were the same as the wordings used in APEC leaders’ statement issued in November last year.

At the latest meeting, the United States worked to put together a joint statement that includes the same wordings about the war in Ukraine as in the leaders’ statement but failed to do so because of objections from Russia and China. In a note to the chair’s statement, the United States wrote that the expressions about the Russian aggression against Ukraine were agreed to by all member economies except China and Russia.

“We were able to reach agreements in many areas. That’s a sign of our willingness to develop free and fair trade,” Japanese trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a press conference after the APEC trade ministers’ meeting, emphasizing that certain achievements were made.

At the meeting, the ministers discussed ways to create a fair economic order and promote free trade, with China’s opaque industrial subsidies favoring state-owned companies in mind.

They also confirmed the importance of reform of the World Trade Organization, which has been failing to perform its functions properly, with an eye to a WTO ministerial conference to be held next year.

JIJI Press