LIMA (AFP) — Leaders of Asia-Pacific economies at an upcoming weekend summit will issue a call against protectionism and backing free trade, despite the global financial crisis, an official from host Peru said Monday.
The 21 nations in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc include the United States, China, Japan and Russia. They account for 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
A week of APEC meetings kicked off with some 800 business leaders gathering in the Real Felipe fortress, one of Lima's top tourist attractions that was built in the 18th century by Spanish colonial rulers to guard against pirates.
Senior officials were also meeting behind closed doors to lay out the agenda for the Saturday-Sunday summit of APEC leaders, who will include US President George W. Bush.
"The main theme we followed in this ... meeting is that we should avoid at any cost protectionism," Peru's deputy foreign minister Gonzalo Gutierrez, who chaired the meeting, told a news conference.
Gutierrez said that the 21-nation group should stick to its goal to achieve a free trade system in the region, echoing a call from world leaders at a G20 summit last weekend in Washington on the financial crisis .
The Group of 20 leaders, brushing aside criticism of globalization during the financial crisis, agreed to refrain from imposing any new trade and investment barriers for the next 12 months.
Gutierrez also noted that the G20 leaders agreed to work toward an agreement this year on modalities to relaunch the deadlocked Doha Round of global free trade talks.
He hoped that APEC would offer a "supplement" to the Washington summit.
"This will be a very clear message, in a sense that trade integration, trade liberalization is one of the elements that we need to follow in order to overcome the result of this financial and economic crisis in the world," Gutierrez said.
Bush also warned against protectionism during the G20 summit, as he prepares to hand over to president-elect Barack Obama, who as a senator criticized some US free-trade pacts as harmful to American workers.
In a parting shot to Bush, protesters announced plans for a rally on Friday against the outgoing US president, blaming him for the global financial crisis and denouncing his record in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Police were on a maximum state of alert for APEC, setting up roadblocks and are checking identification in front of the venues for the summit.
On Sunday, police arrested a man in central Lima who was hauling 36 grenades in his vehicle.
The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Peruvian national Edwin Javier Valladolid Chunga, was being questioned by a police anti-terrorism unit.
Julio Vergara, who is in charge of security for APEC, declined to say if the suspect was plotting to attack the summit.
"We can't say anything for now," Vergara told reporters. "The anti-terrorist police force will be in charge of conduction an investigation."
Peruvian authorities often arrest people hauling large quantities of weapons, mostly dealers smuggling arms from military arsenals to FARC rebels in Colombia or to criminal gangs.
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