LatAm, E Asia build trade bridges

Foreign ministers and envoys from 33 Latin America and East Asian countries Wednesday opened two days of talks to boost fledgling trade between the far-flung regions, amid mixed concern over the US credit crisis.
Forum for East Asia Latin American Cooperation (Fealac) co-host, Brazilian President Jose Luis Lula da Silva, urged the economy ministers and central bank chiefs of the group to "develop the habit of meeting ... to find out how we can arm ourselves to deal with crises that often are out of our hands."
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin said that while financial trouble in rich nations "affect us all," Latin America and Caribbean economies of late "have advanced and their markets have achieved greater stability."
Representatives of East Asian nations, meanwhile, appeared less concerned with the current US market turmoil.
Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Tomohiko Taniguchi told reporters the US crisis was for central banks to deal with, while Indonesian Foreign Secretary Hassan Wirajuda said the matter was of "limited" interest in his region.
Filipino Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo was more forceful: "We're talking about Focalae relations. Maybe later, in other meetings, somebody can bring the (US credit crisis) up for discussion."
In his opening remarks, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Fealac "can well be the greatest ocean-connecting bridge," referring to the two regions separated by the vast Pacific Ocean.
"Our two-way trade is now 3.5 times as big as it was in 1998, from 53 billion US dollars to 183," he said.
"The canals connecting the two oceans, both wet and dry, must be made broader."
Opening the meeting, Amorim called for countries to "explore common interests" between the distant regions.