SINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) - Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group agreed at talks on Tuesday to stop protectionist measures, in an effort to enhance global trade, a trade official told Reuters.
"They all agreed that even if the measures are WTO-consistent, if they have serious protectionist impact on trade and investment they will refrain from taking those measures as much as possible," said the official, who is attending the two-day trade discussions being held in Singapore.
"This kind of agreement will probably be announced tomorrow."
He declined to be identified because the talks were not public.
Earlier Thai Commerce Minister Pornthiva Nakasai said Australia and Indonesia brought up the subject of protectionism at the trade ministers' conference, while Thailand and Taiwan echoed their comments, saying it was hurting agricultural products and automotive exports. [ID:nSP479166]
World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy, also at the meeting, said this month that governments were unfairly blocking trade in response to the global downturn, hurting wealthy economies most and raising concerns about stimulus measures in both rich and poor nations [ID:nL1326500].
"Buy American" provisions in the U.S. stimulus bill generally require public works projects funded by the bill to use only U.S.-made steel, iron and other manufactured goods. Other countries have also issued "buy local" policies. (Reporting by Kazunori Takada and Kevin Yao; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)