SUZHOU, China — Li Chenggang, China's international trade representative, opened the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers' meeting on Friday with a call for regional economies to "send a strong message to the world" in support of cooperation.
Li said he was chairing the opening meeting in place of China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who had "urgent official business," according to a CNBC translation of his remarks in Chinese.
One meeting attendee subsequently told CNBC that the minister was expected to return.
China's Commerce Ministry and APEC did not immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment.
Li is a full minister in his role as the trade representative, and also serves as China's vice commerce minister.
The APEC trade ministers' meeting, set to conclude Saturday, comes about a week after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Beijing. China agreed to place its first major order of Boeing aircraft in nearly a decade, and buy $17 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products annually through 2028.
"Even though APEC isn't a venue for negotiations, it should play a guiding role in economic and trade discussions," Li said.
"For consensus that has already been achieved, [APEC] should accelerate implementation and see results early," he said.
Ambassador Rick Switzer, Deputy United States Trade Representative, is the head of the U.S. delegation for the meeting.
The U.S. is one of the 12 founding members of APEC, which was launched in 1989 in Australia as an informal forum for discussions on free trade and economic cooperation. The multilateral trade organization now has 21 members, including China, Hong Kong and "Chinese Taipei," which joined the forum in 1991.