Closing of the 20th APEC Trade Ministers Meeting

After two days of work to evaluate and prepare the content for the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to be held in Beijing, China in November 2014, this afternoon (October 18), the 20th APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting held in Qingdao City, China ended with many approved contents.

Press conference at the end of the conference.

At the press conference after the end of the Conference, the Minister of Commerce of China, the host country of this year's APEC Conference, said that the Conference decided and adopted the Joint Statement of APEC Trade Ministers supporting the multilateral trade negotiation process; agreed to build a roadmap towards realizing the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area; agreed on an information sharing mechanism on enhancing comprehensive connectivity among members as well as supporting the expansion of financial cooperation and investment in infrastructure development in the region.

The Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang made positive contributions to the overall success of the Conference. Minister Vu Huy Hoang said: “It can be said that this time with a broad theme and comprehensive content, in the process of strengthening international integration, the Vietnamese delegation participated very actively and proactively. We contributed many ideas to the conference agenda, especially actively participating in the issuance of the Joint Statement of the ministers after the end of this Conference, in which we contributed a lot of solutions to remove unreasonable trade barriers raised by some APEC members to achieve the goal of creating favorable conditions for goods and investment to flow freely and smoothly among APEC members.”

Working with the US Trade Representative

During the activities on the sidelines of the Conference, Minister Vu Huy Hoang had bilateral meetings with important partners in APEC such as: the US, South Korea, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and the host of APEC 2014 China, to discuss the contents of promoting bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation, at the same time, to inform about China's violations of Vietnam's sovereignty in the East Sea; Vietnam's resolution policy, requesting China not to violate Vietnam's sovereignty. In general, the delegations expressed their desire for both sides to resolve the issue through peaceful negotiations, respecting international law.

According to VOV