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Global summit predicts economic recovery in 18 months

Los Angeles Times

November 24, 2008

LIMA, Peru - President George W. Bush and other world leaders vowed yesterday to act "quickly and decisively" to battle the global economic crisis, as a 21-nation summit predicted worldwide recovery in 18 months.

But the final declaration from the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum was short on specifics, beyond a vow by participating nations to avoid pressures to implement "protectionist" measures, such as import restrictions.

"We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of eighteen months," the leaders concluded in a forecast added to a statement originally issued Saturday.

The 18-month time line was reportedly inserted at the insistence of Peruvian President Alan García, who played host to the three-day session of Pacific Rim countries that account for about half of all global economic output. "We are going to defeat this crisis," García vowed.

Several participants, including Mexican President Felipe Calderón and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, described the 18-month time line as more of a goal than a prediction.

The summit, Bush's final scheduled foreign trip as U.S. leader, may have been more symbol than substance, analysts agreed. But the forum gave the White House the added support it had sought for its broad guidelines in a worsening global crisis.

The APEC group strongly backed the so-called "Washington Declaration," a blueprint for economic stimulus and improved regulation hammered out by 20 nations earlier this month in the U.S. capital.

The president's imminent departure from office had a clear effect on the summit's proceedings. President-elect Barack Obama was not represented.

Calderón warned Obama against trying to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama has expressed reservations about the trade pact among the United States, Mexico and Canada.