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APEC ministers to investigate freeing trade in minerals and metals

February 22nd, 2007

APEC ministers to investigate freeing trade in minerals and metals

PERTH, Australia (AP): Mining ministers from Asia-Pacific countries ended a meeting Wednesday with an agreement to explore free trade in metals and minerals. 

Australia’s Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane, the meeting’s host, said ministers at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, also known as APEC, agreed after a three-day meeting in this west coast city to examine what effects freeing up trade in minerals and metals would have on the sector. 

“We discussed regulatory frameworks and agreed they should not be unduly prescriptive, but should strive to establish performance goals and outcomes,” Macfarlane said in a statement. 

The study will also explore practical ways to increase trade and investment opportunities among the 21 APEC members. 

“We have taken the first step to achieving a long term vision of an APEC free trade agreement,” Macfarlane told reporters. “This would dwarf every other FTA ever written.” 

APEC members include some of the biggest mineral producers — Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru and the United States — as well as some of the most voracious consumers of commodities, such as China and Japan. 

Macfarlane said the mining ministers’ meeting also adopted a set of nonbinding principles for the industry, including pursuing policies that enhanced sustainable production, trade and consumption of minerals and metals. 

Mining ministers and senior officials met in Perth for the first in a series of ministerial meetings that will culminate in an APEC national leaders’ summit in Sydney in September.

Entry Filed under: minerals and metals