Mr Wong also noted that the leaders of APEC economies recognise “at the broad level” the need for stronger trade linkages.
“But each one will face constraints, domestic circumstances, and may not be able to move at the same pace,” he said.
Citing the example of climate change, Mr Wong said: “The starting point to fight global warming and to tackle climate change is to put a price on carbon and phase out subsidies to fossil fuels. But not everyone is able to make that move. Each one will move at their own pace, because there are domestic considerations, political sensitivities and so on.”
So what is important is at least there is a broad understanding of the end point, he noted.
“We recognise that not everyone can move in tandem, and so we will try to gather like-minded economies to move first,” he said.
Mr Wong added that among the APEC economies, the smaller, more open economies like Singapore, New Zealand and Chile, have often come together to be “pathfinders”.
This was done with the P4 (Brunei, Singapore, Chile and New Zealand), which resulted in the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), and then the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, noted Mr Wong.
P4 is a wide-ranging economic agreement signed in 2005 and the CPTPP is a free-trade agreement between 11 countries, including Brunei, Singapore, Chile and New Zealand, which was signed in 2018. The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement was initially signed by Singapore, Chile and New Zealand in 2020 establishing new approaches and collaborations in digital trade issues. South Korea joined in 2024.
Chile, New Zealand and Singapore have come together to form a joint working group around trade in the green economy, he said.
“We hope this will allow us to again serve as a pathfinder to work out what rules, standards are required for exchange and collaboration around low carbon and green solutions, and that would allow more cross-border trade in low carbon activities,” he added.
“If we are able to put in place this framework, hopefully this can eventually grow into another international initiative.”
