By Tim Groser

Trade Minister Tim Groser will meet with his trade counterparts at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade to be held in Kazan, Russia 4-5 June.

APEC Trade Ministers will be focusing on the four priority areas identified by this year’s APEC hosts Russia: regional economic integration, food security, innovation and establishing reliable supply chains across the region.

“I am pleased that Russia has chosen to highlight regional economic integration. The Asia Pacific is vital to our trade interests, with New Zealand’s combined goods exports to APEC member economies currently valued at $33.7 billion,” says Mr Groser.

While in Kazan Mr Groser will meet with Ministers from other participants in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

“The Instruction from TPP leaders in Honolulu late last year was to conclude this landmark agreement as rapidly as possible, including the key objective of comprehensive market access through elimination of tariffs and other barriers to trade.The meeting in Kazan will be an important checkpoint to review progress made so far in 2012, and discuss with my counterparts how we can reach a successful conclusion.”

APEC Trade Ministers will also discuss the currently stalled WTO Doha Round of international trade negotiations.

“The Doha Round is important for the long term health of the multilateral system. This APEC meeting will build on the outcomes from WTO Ministerial meeting in December last year, including through exploring different negotiating approaches in order to find suitable ways forward across the WTO agenda. New Zealand remains committed to a successful conclusion of the Round and I hope we can move the negotiations forward,” Mr Groser says.

Original: http://beehive.govt.nz/release/groser-attend-apec-trade-meeting-russia