G20 ministers to seek trade increase

G20 economy and trade ministers Mexico City - Arabstoday G20 economy and trade ministers will meet next week in Mexico to seek a boost in trade as part of efforts to tackle Europe's debt crisis, Mexican officials said Thursday. The Group of 20 is "committed to the opening of markets and a multilateral trade system based on clear and fair rules as the only way out faced with the prevailing economic challenges," said Francisco Rosenzweig, Mexico's deputy secretary for external trade, said in Mexico City. Mexico, which heads the group representing the 20 leading and emerging economies until November 2012, "considers it essential to avoid measures affecting commercial flows which impact negatively on economic growth," Rosenzweig said. Nineteen ministers and six deputy ministers from the G20 and invited nations including Spain, Cambodia, New Zealand and Singapore were due to attend the April 18-20 meeting in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta. The heads of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are also expected at the event. The immediately follows the World Economic Forum on Latin America, also in Puerto Vallarta, on April 17-18. That meeting, which will seek to promote inter-regional trade, expects some 900 participants from 70 countries, including the presidents of Spain and Guatemala. Both meetings come ahead of a G20 summit in the Pacific resort of Los Cabos, northwest Mexico, in June.