As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you, Foreign Minister Gonzalez and Trade Minister Salazar, as well as the members of Peru’s Congress who have joined us today.
On behalf of myself and Secretary Blinken, the United States and all of us here, I want to express our appreciation to Peru for its leadership in offering to be the 2024 APEC host.
As Peru prepares for next year’s meetings, I want to reiterate the United States’ commitment to work with you toward a seamless transition.
President Biden has said that much of the future of the world is going to be written in the Asia-Pacific. And over the past year, our economies have continued to write that future together.
Our collective efforts this year, and over the past two days, have strengthened APEC as an institution, ensuring that it remains the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum.
Through platforms like the APEC Business Advisory Council and CEO summit, we’ve bolstered public-private partnerships to generate jobs and accelerate inclusive growth across APEC economies.
And as we’ve advanced our policies—like sustainability, resilience, inclusion, and the digital economy—we’ve ensured that people traditionally left out of these discussions have a seat at the table.
Building consensus around these principles and goals is important, but it’s not everything.
Now, the work falls to each of us to deliver on our commitments—and to hold one another to do the same—to the benefit of people and economies across the region. That’s crucial to realizing our shared APEC vision of a more open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific.
Our economies are more than just numbers. They are made of people, so we need to make sure that our economic and trade policies work for our people and that the benefits created are shared by all.
This is why we are working to finalize the San Francisco Principles on Integration Inclusivity and Sustainability into Trade and Investment Policy.
We also had a first-ever session yesterday morning on how to empower Indigenous Peoples through trade, an important topic, which I hope will continue to remain a vital part of APEC’s trade and investment agenda going forward.
We also had a good session earlier today on identifying how APEC can contribute to the global fight against corruption.
These discussions gave us many practical ideas and much to think about in our work. I want to extend my special thanks to those ministers who were able to join both of these events.
Thank you again, and thank you so much for being with us here in San Francisco and for your support and engagement over the year. I wish all of you safe journeys home.
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