Commonwealth ministers urge open trade in face of crisis

LIMASSOL: Commonwealth finance ministers on Friday appealed for an open trading system in the face of the global financial crisis which has impoverished millions of citizens in smaller member states.

"The impact of the crisis has been felt very strongly and persistently in the poorest and smallest developing members as well as resource-dependent and less diversified economies," they said at the end of a three-day meeting.

"These economies are especially vulnerable to lower trade levels and capital flows and restricted in their ability to use domestic policy to alleviate the impact of exogenous economic shocks," the ministers said in a final statement.

They called for "continued global commitment to an open trading system and the rejection of protectionism," after the talks in the southern Cypriot coastal resort of Limassol.

The finance ministers discussed "the appalling human cost of the current economic crisis in many low-income countries.

"Despite the greater resilience provided in these countries through strengthened policy frameworks, many millions of Commonwealth citizens have fallen into poverty as a result of the crisis," they warned.

The grouping of Britain and 52 former colonies and territories also "stressed the need for greater international support for these countries to build greater resilience in the face of these shocks."

Ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Trinidad on November 27-29, they called for "continued global macroeconomic coordination including monetary and fiscal policy stimulus to avoid a return to global recession and to ensure that global growth is well established."