APEC Commits To Regional Free Trade

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

07 June 2010

In a statement issued after the close of two-day talks in Sapporo, Japan, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers announced progress in achieving their goals of free and open trade, and in advancing regional economic integration, including exploring possible pathways to a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).

It was confirmed that APEC is conducting an intensive review to assess the level of achievement of its goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies, set at Bogor, Indonesia, in 1994.

The progress made by officials on a report to assess such trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in the APEC region was welcomed. The ministers looked forward to “a strong and credible report that will show the significant progress that has been made toward the Bogor goals and identify the remaining work to be done to confirm APEC's status as the world's leading region for trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.”

The assessment report should be available for submission to the next full leaders’ meeting in Yokohama in November this year. In the meantime, the ministers re-confirmed their commitment to “rejecting all forms of protectionism, keeping our markets open, and taking steps to roll back trade distorting measures introduced during the crisis.” They agreed to extend the commitment to a standstill on such measures made by APEC leaders in 2008 for another year (i.e. until 2011), and stood ready to extend this further, if necessary.

The APEC ministers also welcomed the progress made to explore possible pathways to achieve an FTAAP, including discussion on recent developments related to regional trade agreements (RTAs) and free trade agreements (FTAs). Senior officials have been instructed to report by November 2010 on the outcomes of their exploration of a range of possible pathways to achieve an FTAAP that is being undertaken in accordance with APEC leaders' instructions in 2009.

APEC also commended the work that had been undertaken in key areas of regional economic integration, such as investment, standards and technical regulations, trade facilitation, rules of origin, intellectual property rights, and environmental goods and services.

With regard to the simplification of rules of origin documentation and procedures, the ministers instructed senior officials to strengthen their efforts to make rules of origin more business-friendly to help businesses, including small- and medium-sized enterprises, further utilize RTAs and FTAs.

To improve transparency, and thereby facilitate trade, APEC has launched a new web-based gateway to tariff and rules of origin information to help alleviate the “noodle bowl” effect created by FTAs.

It was said that, while APEC's 21 members account for around 44% of world trade, and have concluded over 40 intra-APEC FTAs, businesses often are not able to take full advantage of these special trading arrangements because information on preferential tariffs and rules of origin can be difficult to find. The information available on the website includes current tariff rates, preferential tariff rates and preferential rules of origin in APEC member economies' FTAs and RTAs.

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