APEC will issue a statement after the leaders' meeting this weekend, calling for keeping market openness as an effective measure to tide over the ongoing international financial crisis, Elizabeth Chelliah, head of the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment, said on Tuesday.

A "key message" of the statement which is still being drafted is that "we must keep the market open" instead of closing it, Chelliah told a press conference during the Leaders' Week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that began in the Peruvian capital on Sunday.

Keeping the market open will be an effective measure to control the negative influence brought by the financial crisis, she said.

Chelliah added that economies that are in trouble can only survive when the free flow of commodities, credit, investment and labor is guaranteed.

She warned that if an economy adopts trade protectionism, a very negative "domino effect" will appear which is doomed to deteriorate the situation.

The committee headed by Chelliah is due to present a report to the APEC Ministerial Meeting later this week to offer recommendations on how APEC should do to support the multilateral trading system, high-quality regional trade agreements and free trade agreements as well as digital economy and strengthening intellectual property rights.

Established in 1989, APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2008)