ISTANBUL: G20 trade ministers on Tuesday agreed to pursue deeper and wider reforms to ensure trade growth as it grew less than the global economy for the first time in the last four decades.
“Only through a comprehensive and international trade system, this trend could be reversed and trade growth could be revived,” the ministers said in a press release issued at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Istanbul.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng stressed that China, as a country with a significant trade volume in terms of products and valuable export and import figures, is ready to contribute to the global trade growth.
“In 2016, during China’s G20 presidency, the trade growth and investment will be on top of the agenda and China is ready for cooperation to develop a comprehensive, international trade system,” Gao said at a joint press conference with Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci.
Zeybekci also urged G20 countries to reverse the slow pace of global trade growth through implementing policies that fit the needs of the system.
“Our economies should be supported by real sector (production, growth and job creation) instead of fictional factors with inflated values, mostly based on consumption,” said Zeybekci.
Talking about the trade accord reached on Monday between 12 Pacific Rim nations, which is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Turkish and Chinese ministers spoke of cooperation through regional integrations and creation of institutional structures as means to boost the global trade.
Gao noted that when they meet in the Philippines in November, the APEC members will have a full discussion about the roadmap on a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific, a process initiated in Beijing last year.
