Economic and trade ministers of 18 countries, including India, the U.S., and China, agreed at the East Asia Summit that trade restrictive measures taken to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic must be transparent and temporary, according to a statement.
The ministers also emphasised that trade measures in view of COVID-19 should not create unnecessary barriers or disruptions in the global and regional supply chains, said the statement released after the eighth East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM), held virtually on August 28. Economic ministers from 10 ASEAN-member countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the U.S. took part in the meeting.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal participated in the deliberations.
According to the joint statement, the ministers recognised the importance of facilitating essential movement of people across borders, without undermining each country’s efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, to stabilise the trade and investment.
They also discussed the importance of harnessing the opportunities of digital economy.
