KYOTO, Japan — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, meeting with counterparts from around the world this weekend, faces a tough task selling his formula for mending fissures in the global economy as nations seek ways to avoid another downturn.
The two-day gathering of finance ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation kicked off Friday and follows a Group of 20 meeting last month in South Korea, where finance heads and central bankers vowed to avoid using their currencies as trade weapons.
They also promised to establish a way to measure the reduction of destabilizing trade gaps, seen through figures such as surpluses and deficits in the current account — a broad indicator of a country’s trade and investment.
At the heart of the problem is the huge gap between the United States, which buys far more than it sells to the rest of the world, and developing countries, such as China, which are running big trade surpluses.
The Obama administration says China’s undervalued currency, the yuan, contributes to strains in the global economy because it gives Beijing an unfair trade boost by making Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, emerging economies like Brazil blame both the U.S. and China for keeping their currencies weak.
APEC is comprised of countries that border the Pacific Ocean, including advanced economies such as the U.S., Japan and Australia and emerging economies such as China, Vietnam and Mexico.
Because this weekend’s APEC meeting is sandwiched between two G20 gatherings, it will offer officials another opportunity to figure out how to spark the global economy.
