Leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies at the annual meeting on Saturday issued a statement, calling for early resumption of the Doha round negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"We reaffirm our collective and individual commitments to concluding an ambitious and balanced WTO Daha agreement," said the statement.

To meet the goal, "we have an urgent need to break the current deadlock and to put the negotiations back on a path towards a timely conclusion," said the statement.

The 14th Economic Leaders' Meeting of the APEC forum began here Saturday afternoon under the theme of "Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity."

The statement said that APEC economies are determined to " resume without further delay" negotiations to achieve a balanced and ambitious outcome that works for all WTO members.

The leaders expressed that to break the current deadlock, each of the economies is committed to move beyond their current positions in key areas of the Round.

With this, they need deeper reduction in trade-distorting farm support by major players, creating new market access in agriculture, making real cuts in industrial tariffs, and establishing new openings in services trade.

The leaders also urged their partners in other regions to take similar actions for the early resumption of the Doha negotiations.

At the first-day meeting, the leaders also endorsed the Hanoi Action Plan to implement the Busan roadmap on the free and open trade and investment in the region.

APEC members account for more than one-third of the world's population, about 60 percent of the world's gross domestic product and about 47 percent of world trade.

APEC currently has 21 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua