APEC Ministers Pursue Regional Economic Integration

Determined to develop greater regional economic integration (REI), including the long-term prospect of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), APEC Ministers have endorsed a list of specific deliverables.

After a two-day meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT), endorsements include model measures for the chapters on Competition Policy, Environment and Temporary Entry for Business Persons. In addition, a study of bilateral investment agreements and core investment-related elements of existing free trade agreements in the region is being undertaken with a view to developing core principles for investment agreements.

The second Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAPP II), which asserts to reduce trade transaction costs by an additional 5 percent by 2010, will be accelerated by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and reporting methodologies developed to measure the progress of collective actions toward implementation

Responding to World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General, Mr. Pascal Lamy, who discussed the current situation of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), Ministers stressed the crucial importance of the WTO rules-based multilateral trading system and agreed on the urgency of bringing the DDA negotiations to a prompt and successful conclusion this year.

The global crisis caused by the dramatic escalation in food prices has increased the urgency to achieve substantial improvements in market access and reductions in market-distorting measures in global agricultural trade; and a rapid completion of the WTO Doha Round, with an ambitious and balanced outcome, would also be an important factor in overcoming this serious international situation.

To read the entire ministers' Statement, in its entirety, go to: http://www.apec.org/Meeting-Papers/Ministerial-Statements/Trade/2008_trade.aspx