Trade talks effort

Pacific Rim leaders pledged to shore up global security and push ahead with the World Trade Organisation’s negotiations on lowering global trade barriers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum.

The 21-member forum meeting in Santiago, Chile, backed new security measures to fight terror while issuing strong support for WTO talks aimed at liberalising trade.

Member economies, which account for nearly half of the world’s trade, promised to “continue our work with a renewed sense of urgency, in order to achieve a balanced, overall outcome that will meet the high levels of ambition set for these negotiations”.