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President Moon attends a meeting of the APEC Business Advisory Council at the Furama Resort Hotel in Da Nang

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who arrived in the Vietnamese city of Da Nang on the afternoon of Nov. 10 to attend the APEC summit, called for the greater realization of the spirit of APEC – that is, regional economic integration through free trade – and for the rapid establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

“APEC, which has achieved brilliant growth over the past thirty years, has become the center of economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and the scale of regional trade has increased by more than 7% each year,” Moon said while attending a meeting of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), which convened in Da Nang.

“The power of free trade has largely been what enabled South Korea to become one of the world’s 10 strongest economies over the past fifty years. The South Korean government will diligently implement the Lima Declaration on the FTAAP, which was adopted at the 2006 APEC summit,” Moon promised.

The FTAAP, a free trade plan that is being aggressively promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is receiving attention as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was basically scuttled by US President Donald Trump, a critic of free trade. There are also signs of a battle of nerves for economic leadership in the Asia-Pacific region between the US and China, dominant players in the global economy.

“The benefits of free trade must be distributed fairly,” said Moon, insisting that the sectors that are harmed during the process of economic integration and free trade must be minimized. “We must also work harder to provide occupational training and reemployment assistance to the workers who lose their jobs because of free trade.”

While explaining the main concepts of his administration’s vision of a “people-centered economy,” Moon added that “The most important thing is the method and the direction of growth. Enabling all citizens to enjoy the benefits of economic growth, I believe, is the path that must be walked down not only by South Korea but by the entire world.”

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

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