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I.
What is APEC ?
APEC stands for the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Forum. Today, APEC has 21 members, including all the major economies
of the region and the most dynamic, fastest growing economies in the
world. APEC members have a
combined Gross Domestic Product of over $16 trillion and carry out 42% of
world trade. Over the past
decade, APEC has become the primary vehicle in the region to promote open
trade and economic cooperation. APEC's
role has grown in recent years in both depth and scope and now encompasses
trade liberalization, business facilitation, economic and technical
cooperation, youth and women.
A
GREAT TOOL FOR BUSINESS: BizAPEC.com
A
new tool is now available for businesses to access the wealth of
practical information available within the APEC website.
Please check out the new portal BizAPEC.com.
You will also find useful the publication; APEC Getting
Results for Business. Find
it in the Virtual Library and at www.dfat.gov.au/apec/apec_bus_results.pdf.
APEC's
Background
APEC was established in 1989 in
Canberra, Australia with 12 members.
Its origins lay in the desire of the founding members to promote
economic growth, foster and strengthen trade, and improve living standards
in the Asia-Pacific region. APEC started with a modest program of sectoral and trade
negotiations. From the
beginning, APEC has seen itself not as a grouping of countries, but of
economies, the term emphasizing that the organization discusses economics,
not politics. It was also
established as a loose consultative forum, with no organization structure
or a large bureaucracy supporting it.
Indeed, even today, the APEC Secretariat, which is located in
Singapore, includes only 23 diplomats seconded from APEC member economies
in addition to 20 locally hired staff.
It was in 1993 that an
annual meeting of APEC Leaders became a regular feature of APEC.
Only one year after this first meeting, which was held in the U.S.,
APEC Leaders took another historic step at their meeting in Bogor,
Indonesia. At this meeting,
the Leaders declared a bold goal of creating the world's largest area of
free trade and investment by 2020. Within
APEC, this challenge became known as the "Bogor Goals."
Under the plan, developed economies would achieve free trade by the
year 2010 and developing economies would follow in 2020.
[APEC's
21 members today are: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; the
People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; South
Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the
Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; the United
States; and Viet Nam.]
How
Businesses Can Get Involved in APEC:
Contact
Richard Eason at the APEC Secretariat.
(Tel: 65-276-1880; Fax: 65-
276-1775;
E-Mail: rme@mail.apecsec.org.sg);
OR
If
you are interested in the specific activities of an APEC working group,
task force, or other APEC group, contact directly the program director
for that group. Check the APEC Secretariat website at http://www.apecsec.org.sg.
Or bizAPEC.com for the name and contact information of the relevant
director.
At their meeting in Japan
in 1995, the Leaders approved what became known as the Osaka Action
Agenda. Under this approach,
APEC established three central pillars to its cooperative work: trade and
investment liberalization, trade facilitation, and economic and technical
cooperation. A more detailed
discussion of these three pillars appears below.
Building on both Bogor and Osaka, the next year, the Leaders
endorsed a "Manila Action Plan."
In effect, this Action Plan put the flesh on the bare bones of both
Bogor and Osaka. It outlined
the trade and investment liberalization and facilitation measures needed
to reach the Bogor Goals. It
also established a system of collective and individual action plans which
detail the paths by which economies will reach the Bogor Goals.
Before describing any
further what APEC is, it would be useful to make clear what it is not.
APEC is not:
-
a formal trade agreement like
the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA);
-
a European-style "common
market,"
-
a rules-based organization
like the World Trade Organization (WTO);
-
a policy think tank group like
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
APEC's
First Pillar: Trade and
Investment Liberalization
The first pillar is critical for
APEC's ability to achieve its Bogor Goal of free trade in the APEC region
by the year 2020. It works on
the basis of unilateral liberalization, which means that each APEC member
voluntarily agrees to liberalize in a particular area of trade and
investment. APEC has
developed a basic tool for achieving this pillar: individual action plans
(known by the acronym IAP). All
APEC economies are required to prepare and regularly update these IAPs.
Each IAP includes details
on the 15 sectors specified by the Osaka Action Agenda.
They include the following areas:
-
tariffs
-
non-tariff measures
-
services
-
investment
-
standards and conformance
-
customs procedures
-
intellectual property rights
-
competition policy
-
government procurement
-
rules of origin
-
dispute mediation
-
the mobility of business
people
-
implementation of outcomes of
the Uruguay Round of trade talks, and
-
information gathering and
analysis.
In
addition to each IAP describing what APEC members are doing in these
areas, there are working-level groups within APEC which work towards
making further progress in each of the 15 areas.
APEC has made these IAPs more accessible to business by simplifying
formats and creating electronic IAPs.
These "e-IAPs became fully operational in November 2000.
In addition to the IAPs, APEC members work together collectively in
these same areas through the use of Collective Action Plans, known as CAPs.
APEC's
Second Pillar: Trade Facilitation
Basically, trade facilitation
is aimed at making doing business in the region easier and less costly.
Although work in this area continues on a broad front, APEC has
already made substantial progress in many areas including standards,
customs, electronic commerce, business travel, telecommunications, energy,
fisheries, and government procurement.
Some examples will be discussed separately, to better highlight how
business can best take advantage of the progress in these areas.
APEC's
Third Pillar: Economic and
Technical Cooperation
Within APEC, economic and technical
cooperation is described in shorthand by the term, "Ecotech."
It should first be stressed that Ecotech does not mean development
assistance to developing APEC economies.
Instead, the goals of Ecotech are to:
-
attain sustainable growth and
equitable development within APEC;
-
reduce economic disparities;
-
improve the economic and
social well-being of the people;
-
deepen the spirit of community
in APEC.
At their meeting in
Manila in 1996, APEC Leaders identified six priority areas for APEC's work
in Ecotech:
-
developing human capital;
-
fostering safe and efficient
capital markets;
-
strengthening economic
infrastructure;
-
harnessing technologies for
the future;
-
promoting environmentally
sustainable growth; and
-
encouraging the growth of
small and medium enterprises.
Currently, APEC has 250
ongoing Ecotech activities.
II.
HOW APEC WORKS
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum is not a rules-based
organization with trade dispute enforcement powers like the WTO.
APEC, instead, works on the basis of consultation and
consensus-building. New
policies agreed to within APEC meetings are agreed to voluntarily and much
of APEC's progress comes through members setting examples for each other
and through peer pressure. A
key element of the process is open sharing of information between members
and the public, an element underlined by the central use of the Individual
Action Plans available to anyone logging on to the APEC website.
In Shanghai, the APEC Leaders also launched a pathfinder
initiative. The details of this initiative are being worked out this year
but the idea is that groups of APEC members will make projects in specific
areas where possible, regardless of whether all APEC members are ready.
The
apex of each year for APEC is the meeting of Economic Leaders.
Since the Chair of APEC rotates each year, there is a different
host for each of these Leaders meetings.
For example, last year President Bush, President Putin, President
Fox, and the other APEC Leaders traveled to Shanghai, where President
Jiang Zemin hosted them. This
year, Mexico chairs APEC and President Fox will host the APEC Economic
Leaders in Los Cabos, Baja del Sur, Mexico October 26 and 27.
In subsequent years, Thailand (2003), Chile (2004), and the
Republic of Korea (2005) will chair APEC.
However, throughout an
"APEC" year, there are many meetings held at different levels
aimed at preparing issues for decision by the Leaders, as well as at
carrying out directions issued by Leaders in previous years. (The schedule for these meetings can be found on the APEC
website under the "APEC Calendar" at http://www.apecsec.org.sg/whatsnew/calend/calendar.html.)
The meetings of APEC Ministers make up the highest level of these
meetings. There are regular,
although not always annual, meetings of APEC Ministers of education,
energy, environment and sustainable development, finance, human resources
development, science and technology, small and medium enterprises,
telecommunications, trade, and transportation.
Below
the level of the Ministers, APEC Senior Officials meet three or four times
throughout the year. As with
the meetings of the Ministers, these "SOM" meetings both prepare
for the Leaders' Meeting later in the year and respond to directions set
by Leaders in earlier meetings. Below
SOM are three overarching committees and 23 working level groups that work
both in the sectors detailed in the Individual Action Plans (see the top
of page 3) and in other areas, including:
-
energy
-
fisheries
-
human resources development
-
industrial science and
technology
-
marine resources conservation
-
telecommunications
-
trade promotion
-
transportation
-
tourism
-
agricultural technical
cooperation
-
small and medium enterprises.
There
is a Program Director at the APEC Secretariat who supports the working
level activities being carried on in APEC in each of these areas as well
as those mentioned elsewhere. You
can identify each Program Director and contact them by logging on to htttp://www.apecsec.org.sg
and going to the "APEC Secretariat" page and then to
"Incumbent PSMs and Duties."
In addition, information on the working level groups themselves
appears under the WebPages "Activities by Groups."
The
APEC Secretariat
The APEC Secretariat is based
in Singapore. The Secretariat
is staffed by 23 diplomats seconded from APEC member economies and by 20
local staff. An Executive
Director, who is always an Ambassador seconded from that year's APEC host,
heads the Secretariat. Since
China is this year's host of APEC, the current Executive Director,
Ambassador Alejandro de la Pea,
is Mexican. The Deputy
Executive Director is always from next year's APEC host and he or she
becomes the Executive Director the following year when the new APEC host
takes over. The current
Deputy Director, Thailands Ambassador Piamsak Milintachinda, will serve
as the Secretariat's Executive Director for Thailand's year as host of
APEC in 2003. The other 21
seconded diplomats are from, currently, from 18 of the APEC members and
are from Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministries.
The
Secretariat works under the direction of the APEC Senior Officials and is
the core support mechanism for the APEC process.
It provides advisory, operational and logistical/technical services
to member economies and APEC forums.
It also provides advice on the design of APEC projects, manages
project funding, and evaluates the projects after they are completed.
It addition to maintaining the website, it produces a range of
publications and liaises with the media.
Finally, it provides APEC's institutional memory through its
Library, Archives and databases.
III.
THE CRITICAL ROLE OF BUSINESS IN APEC
The
APEC Business Advisory Council
There are few international or
regional organizations of officials in which the business sector plays
such a central role. The
members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum have long realized
that business is a key constituency for its work and that business must be
actively involved for APEC to be successful.
During APEC's early years, APEC officials regularly consulted
prominent business representatives in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 1995, Leaders decided to formalize this relationship and
established the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).
ABAC's members are chosen directly by the APEC Leaders.
Each APEC Leader chooses up to three members.
Most APEC economies reserve one of their ABAC positions for a
representative from a small or medium-sized enterprise, thanks to the key
role that these SMEs play in all APEC economies.
ABAC
meets several times during the year and compiles an annual report
containing recommendations on ways to improve the business and investment
climate in the APEC region. ABAC
presents this report personally to the APEC Leaders at the Leaders meeting
each year. As an example, at
the Shanghai Leaders meeting, ABAC members presented their report in a
face-to-face meeting with Premier Jiang Zemin, President George W. Bush,
President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Mori, Mexican
President Vicente Fox and the other APEC Leaders.
There was also a lively question-and-answer session during this
meeting.
ABAC's
2001 Report to APEC Economic Leaders was broad ranging but full of
detailed recommendations aimed at addressing problems in a number of
different areas. In this report, ABAC:
The
ABAC report contains four main themes:
-
APEC
economies must accelerate progress towards trade and investment liberalization as
stated in the Bogor Goals. We
encourage Leaders to instill the necessary sense of urgency and
commitment to fully liberalize trade and investment in accordance with
the Bogor Goals and we respectfully urge Leaders to instruct Ministers
and Officials to achieve these.
-
ABAC
strongly advocates that APEC demonstrate its support for the launch of
a new WTO round at the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Doha in November.
-
ABAC
alerts Leaders to the impending threat
of financial contagion. APEC
should counter the current economic uncertainty with decisive measures
to stimulate economic growth, and accelerate financial reforms.
Economies need to ensure that international and regional
financial architecture mechanisms are in place to deal with contagion.
These should include key indicators recommended by the IMF
aimed at providing early warning signals, and improved policy
coordination.
-
A
balanced approach to
globalization that combines market opening, capacity-building and
full participation is essential because these three elements reinforce
one another. Should any
of these three be neglected, the globalization process would lose
balance and the goal of common development could not be realized.
Therefore, all three elements should develop hand-in-hand as an
integral part of the APEC process.
Some
of the specific recommendations include:
-
Accelerate
banking and capital market reforms to international financial
standards, improve corporate governance, and further liberalize
investment and trade in financial services.
-
Intensify
capacity-building to promote financial system reforms to deepen
markets through the development of domestic bond markets and credible
credit rating agencies, strengthen risk management hedging mechanisms,
and when viable, wider use of second board markets.
-
Strengthen
international and regional financial architecture by participating in:
-
Financial
soundness indicators programs to improve surveillance measures.
-
Efforts
to mitigate the adverse impacts of short-term capital flows,
activities of highly leveraged institutions and moral hazard.
-
Encourage
regional private-public partnerships in trade facilitation and
capacity building as shown by the Shanghai Model Port Project
-
Encourage
Leaders to take the opportunity of the Shanghai meeting to renounce
the use of food embargoes and to urge their officials to adopt the
other action items proposed by ABAC to assist in the implementation of
the APEC Food System.
-
Align
standards and conformance through mutual recognition agreements and
the adoption of international standards.
-
Strengthen
the accessibility and comprehensiveness of the Individual Action Plans
(IAPs) to make them an essential means of measuring APEC's progress
and tools business can use to make strategic decisions.
-
Address
impediments to trade with emphasis on strengthening the enforcement of
intellectual property rights (IPR) and removing barriers to foreign
direct investment (FDI).
-
Adopt
policies that enable the widespread use of e-learning as a tool to
develop skills and reduce the digital divide.
-
Leading
by example, governments should put more information and services
online, improving efficiency and access, and encouraging private
sector investment in information and communication technology (ICT).
-
Facilitate
one-window access to SME programs and services through the development
of an APEC SME Portal, to provide information on financing, technology
and new market opportunities.
-
Adopt
policies that are "small business-friendly", with the
assistance of a proposed Scorecard for Entrepreneurial Environment.
As a regional economic
organization, APEC plays an important role in the economic globalization
process. In the past decade, member economies have made remarkable
achievements in their pursuit of open and free trade and investment. This
year, however, the Asia Pacific region faces a number of new and serious
challenges.
-
The
terrorist attacks in the United States in September 2001 caused APEC,
for the first time, to confront a political issue.
The APEC Leaders in Shanghai issued a statement on counter
terrorism, detailing a number of steps that must be addressed to
respond vigorously to the threat.
-
The
pronounced slowdown of the global economy in 2001 even before the
events of September 11 led to further financial instability and fears
of contagion. Market confidence was seriously weakened, slowing
progress in globalization. Economies of the region reliant on external
demand are lost momentum with their economic recoveries. Financial
systems were seen as increasingly vulnerable to a new round of crisis.
-
The
final launch of a new round of WTO talks, assisted in part by work
done in APEC has helped break a logjam in global trade talks.
Now progress will be possible in a range of important trade
areas. Although APEC as
an institution will not be involved directly in those talks, APEC will
closely monitor the process and do its best to help it along.
-
The
deadline for realizing the commitments under the Bogor Declaration by
2010/2020 is fast approaching. APEC's credibility is at stake unless
it can demonstrate political will and decisively translate commitments
into concrete actions to achieve the Bogor Goals of trade and
investment liberalization and facilitation (TILF).
-
Economic
globalization is being accompanied by a public debate on its benefits
and costs. The time has come for APEC to step forward and contribute
to ways of maximizing the benefits for common development and easing
the costs of economic globalization, and thus lead the public debate
in a constructive manner.
(You
can read the ABAC report in its entirety at http://www.apecsec.org.sg/abac/reports/ABAC_Report_2001.pdf.)
Past recommendations from ABAC have been adopted as APEC goals.
Electronic Individual Action Plans, the APEC Food System, an
E-Commerce Readiness Assessment and many other APEC initiatives owe
their genesis to ABAC recommendations.
The
CEO Summit
As an added opportunity for top
business leaders to participate in the APEC Leaders' meeting, a CEO Summit
is organized each year. At
this year's CEO Summit in Shanghai, Presidents George W. Bush, Vladimir
Putin, Vicente Fox, Premier Jiang Zemin, Prime Ministers Mahathir Mohamad,
Helen Clark, Junichiro Koizumi, Chief Executive Tung Chee Hua and WTO
Director General-Designate Supachai Panitchpakdi spoke, along with other
leading political, academic and business representatives, to a gathering
of over 1000 top business executives.
The top business executives included Microsoft's Bill Gates,
Hewlett Packard's Carly Fiorino, FedEx's Fred Smith, Toshiba's Taizo
Nishimuro, General Motors' John Smith, and AOL Time Warner's Gerald Levin.
Business
Advising APEC at the Working Level
Below the level of the APEC
Leaders and ABAC, business is active at many levels in APEC and in many of
the APEC Ministerial and working-level groups.
At the level of the Ministers, the APEC Finance Ministers
established the APEC Financiers Group, which consists of representatives
of financial institutions from each APEC economy, in 1995.
In 2000, the APEC Energy Ministers held a full-day public and
private sector dialogue and a separate dialogue with the Energy Business
Network, a grouping of energy-related private sector companies.
The APEC SME Ministers hold joint meetings with the SME Business
Forum and also have met as well with the Women Leaders' Network and an
E-Commerce Workshop.
At
the working level of APEC, there are many different ways in which business
advises APEC officials. For
example, business representatives have participated in meetings of the
Intellectual Property Rights Experts Group since 1996 and the Fisheries
Task Force of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) has worked
with the Fisheries Working Group since 1991.
Other working level APEC groups hold annual dialogues with the
private sector: the Infrastructure Workshop, the Sub-Committee on Customs
Procedures, and the Trade Promotion Working Group.
As noted earlier, other APEC working groups have established a
private sector arm such as the Energy Business Network of the Energy
Working Group. Many other
groups have ad hoc contacts with business and others, such as the Informal
Experts Group on the Mobility of Business People and others include
business representatives as members of their delegations.
These include the Industrial Science and Technology Working Group,
the Marine Resources Conservation Group, and the Telecommunications
Working Group.
IV.
WHAT
APEC DOES FOR BUSINESS
The direct and extensive
involvement of business in the deliberations of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation Forum is critical for APEC's work and for staying on track to
achieve the Bogor goals of trade liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region
by the year 2020. Business
provides APEC officials with a cutting-edge view of entrepreneurial
developments and high-technology and helps point APEC the right way in
removing impediments to doing business in the region.
The business sector has been instrumental in detailing how APEC
economies can best make themselves ready for the new economy and
e-commerce. With the
head-spinning changes taking place not only in technology but the
structure of commerce itself, APEC officials would be hopelessly behind
the curve keeping up with the changes without the direct ties with those
in the business sector at the forefront of these revolutionary changes.
It is often hard to point
out a "top ten" of APEC achievements that benefit the private
sector. APEC works in so many
different areas that it would be impossible to rank order such a diversity
of initiatives. The best
approach would be to highlight a few examples from a number of the areas
that benefit businesses most directly.
The next section, "Recent APEC Success Stories," attempts
to do just that.
RECENT
APEC SUCCESS STORIES
Standards
and Conformance
-
APEC members have committed to
align domestic standards with relevant international standards in four
priority sectors by 2005 (electrical and electronic appliances, food
labeling, rubber gloves and condoms, and machinery).
Member economies have also agreed to align all electrical
safety and electromagnetic compatibility standards by 2008.
-
APEC is eliminating the need
for separate testing for compliance with product standards in each
importing economy through the adoption of Mutual
Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) on Conformance Testing.
Manufacturers will be able to test importing country standards
in approved facilities in their home economy.
Key sectors include:
-
Telecommunications
Equipment: The Telecommunications MRA covers trade worth an
estimated US$ 50 billion per year.
It is estimated that the MRA will save five percent of the cost
of new product placement, cut six months off the placement of new
products in markets and reduce marketing costs for new products by up
to thirty percent.
-
Food
and Food Products: The APEC Food MRA is designed to facilitate
trade by minimizing food inspection controls at the point of entry
into import economies on the basis of assurances provided through
pre-export conformity assessment using official and officially
recognized inspection and certification systems.
It is an umbrella arrangement under which the implementing
elements of sectoral arrangements relating to specific foods or food
product sectors are to be included.
-
Electrical
and Electronic Equipment: The Electrical MRA will be the first
truly multilateral arrangement of its type.
Unlike the Food and TEL MRAs, it does not require the approval
of testing facilities and recognition of test results to be based on a
bilateral agreement within a multilateral framework.
Rather the Electrical MRA contains parts that are implemented
multilaterally.
-
APEC has developed guidelines
and arrangements for the exchange of information in
the following sectors:
-
Food:
The Food Recall Guidelines will help developing members
establish their own food recall systems and ensure a consistent
approach among all members. As
an adjunct to the Guidelines, APEC has endorsed an Arrangement for the
Exchange of Information on Food Recalls.
The guidelines and arrangement contribute to facilitating trade
in food and food products within the APEC region while minimizing the
risks to health and safety of consumers.
-
Toys:
The Arrangement for the Exchange of Information on Toy Safety
provides a mechanism for the exchange of information on technical
regulations dealing with the risks to health and safety of children
that may arise from hazards associated with toys.
Business
Travel
- APEC has made business travel much
easier within the APEC region. Expanded
granting of multiple entry visas and a greater number of visa waiver
arrangements have greatly simplified business travel.
Instant access to visa requirements within APEC has also been
provided through the APEC
Business Travel Handbook website (http://www.apecsec.org.sg/travbook/contents.html).
-
The APEC
Business Travel Card scheme ensures ongoing visa-free travel
and expedited airport processing for holders.
After China and Chinese Taipei joined the scheme last year, 12
economies now participate in the APEC Business Travel Card scheme and
more are expected to join in the future.
The APEC Business Advisory Council is a strong proponent of the
Travel Card.
Customs
-
Economies are implementing
both the WTO
Customs Valuation Code to ensure regional consistency in
valuing traded goods, and the World Customs Organizations
Guidelines on Express Consignment Clearance.
An extensive cooperation program is under way to help all
members reach these targets.
-
The APEC
Blueprint for Customs Modernization maps out APECs
strategic direction in the area of customs and enables business to
visualize the future changes and the positive impacts they will have.
E-Commerce
and Paperless Trading
-
The APEC
Blueprint for Action on E-Commerce responds to the Internet
revolution by committing APEC members to a goal of paperless trading.
The computerization of customs and other trade-related
procedures through the adoption of the UN/EDIFACT standard is a key
step towards paperless trading. The
Blueprint also guides governments on the development of legal,
technical, operating and trading environments for e-commerce. The E-Com Legal Guide (http://www.bakerinfo.com/apec)
provides businesses with Internet access to members current laws on
electronic transactions and regulatory barriers affecting e-commerce.
The E-Commerce
Readiness Assessment (http://www.apecsec.org.sg/download/abac/e_commerce_read_guide.exe),
developed with extensive private sector input, advises officials how
best to make their economies ready to adopt the new economy.
Telecommunications
Energy
Transportation
Intellectual
Property
-
APECs Guidelines
for Simplification and Standardization of Administrative Procedures
for Intellectual Property Protection will lessen the burden on
business of complicated procedures when applying to obtain
intellectual property rights in different economies.
The Guidelines are a step towards standardized APEC trademark
applications and, eventually, to paperless filing.
The APEC IPR Information Mall and the Intellectual Property
Contact List websites provide business with easy access to information
on intellectual property protection regimes, including IPR enforcement
systems, and contact details for relevant government officials,
business people and academics.
-
APEC has pursued a cooperation
program to assist members in implementing the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
Activities undertaken include a symposium to support TRIPS
implementation and surveys on the current status of implementation of
the Agreement.
Trade
Promotion
-
One of APECs tools in
stimulating trade has been the holding of APEC
Trade Fairs. The
APEC Trade Fairs make it easier for member economies to showcase
products, services and technologies of APEC member economies, promote
trade and investment, and foster closer business and economic
relationships among business communities in the region.
The APEC Working Group on Trade Promotion has been holding
these APEC Trade Fairs once every two years.
The last one, the 4th APEC International Trade Fair,
was held in Indonesia in October 2000.
The date and venue for the 5th APEC International
Trade Fair in 2002 is still pending.
-
The same Trade Promotion
Working Group also runs APECNet, which allows
businesses to search for business opportunities (including business
matching services) in member economies, by posting inquiries and
accessing member economies homepages.
Enhancing
Access to Market Information
-
The APEC
Directory of Professional Services (http://www.dfat.gov.au/apec/prof_services/index.html)
will facilitate trade in services by increasing transparency, making
relevant information more accessible and contributing to any future
development of common professional standards in the APEC region.
-
The Compilation
of Information on Food Labeling Laws, Regulations and Standards in the
APEC Region benefits food exporters by providing easy access
to such information at minimum cost while ensuring the health and
safety of consumers.
-
The APEC
Manual on Air-Shipped Live and Fresh Seafood (available for
purchase from the APEC Secretariat website) provides customs, health
and technical guidelines on preparing and packaging goods for air
shipment in APEC markets. With
the demand for these products growing worldwide, the contribution that
this makes to facilitating trade for fish harvesters, importers,
wholesalers and retailers in APEC economies, particularly recent
entrants (most of whom are small enterprises) is significant.
The current value for trade in live fish alone is estimated at
over US $1.2 billion.
-
The APEC
Investment Guidebook (http://www.apecsec.org.sg/download/pubs/invstguide4.exe)
provides information on foreign investment regimes in APEC economies,
including regulatory frameworks, investment protection and promotion
and incentives.
-
The APEC
Investment Mart and the Cyber
Mart provide potential investors with detailed information on
investment policies and environments of APEC economies.
-
The APEC
Government Procurement Homepage (http://www.apecsec.org.sg/govtproc/gphome.html)
details members policies and procedures for bidding on public
procurement contracts and, where available, links to domestic sites
listing actual bidding opportunities.
Government markets typically represent 10-15% of GDP.
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APECNet
(http://www.apecnet.org.sg)
allows businesses to post or identify business opportunities over the
Internet. This provides
business with a convenient and cost-effective platform to facilitate
business exchange. On
average, the site records a monthly hit rate of 45,000 with 8,000
monthly requests for information about member economies.
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The APEC
Ports Database (http://www.apecport.org)
provides business with readily accessible, user-friendly information
on port location, administration, capacity, and relevant shipping
agents.
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