MANILA: APEC does not want to see a United States-led free-trade agreement become a “rich-economy club”, a senior forum official said Monday.

Speaking ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Philippine capital Manila, Alan Bollard, executive director of the APEC secretariat, said the organization’s 21 members had already entered into a “noodle bowl” of about 150 trade agreements and the TTP needed to be compatible with those deals.

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