US indicates readiness to knock down free-trade barriers in Asia

Tokyo: The United States announced yesterday it will join a trans-Pacific free-trade area giving a major boost to a proposal to expand it and signalling that Washington will resist protectionism despite the global downturn.

President Barack Obama made the announcement first in Tokyo, and US trade representative Ron Kirk cited the decision minutes later in Singapore at a conference of Asia-Pacific business and government leaders.

Washington's decision to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a free trade agreement among Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei — was welcomed with loud applause in Singapore.

The agreement is seen as a starting point for a possible free-trade area spanning the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum, which was founded 20 years ago to promote greater trade and integration in the region.

Its scope since has expanded to encompass a wide range of issues, including climate change, energy and food security, and politics.

"We believe that a high-standard, regional trade agreement under the Trans-Pacific Partnership can help bring home to the American people the jobs and economic prosperity that are, in fact, the promise of a global trading society," Kirk told the conference, held on the sidelines of Apec's weeklong annual forum.

The weekend meeting, which includes Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and 18 other leaders, will address new growth strategies in the wake of the global financial meltdown. Obama was expected to arrive in Singapore in time to join the conference today.

Leaders at the summit are expected to push for faster progress in World Trade Organisation free-trade talks and in crafting a global agreement on responding to climate change.

Recovery talk

Kirk urged Apec members to work closely with the US in stimulating recovery in a "balanced" way.

"This means the United States needs to consume less, and produce and export more, while many of our Apec members with surpluses should seriously consider the need to increase their consumption and imports," he said.

President Hu Jintao had on Friday cited China's efforts to fire up demand at home, through improved social services, tax cuts and other consumption-friendly policies, to make the world's third-largest economy less reliant on exports.

He also called for better policing of world financial markets to prevent the kind of meltdown triggered by speculation in toxic assets and perilously high levels of debt.

Mexico's president warned the US against succumbing to protectionism.

"Protectionism is killing North American companies," said President Felipe Calderon, whose country is eyeing 3 per cent growth in 2010 after a 7.2 per cent contraction this year.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, making his first trip to Singapore, said protectionism is a "short-term" solution and stressed that trade is a powerful stimulus for growth.

"Developing countries' access to international markets is a guarantee of their further progressive development," he said. "We have to do everything in our power to refrain from protectionism."

Obama is also scheduled to hold a summit with ten leaders from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, on Saturday.