APEC gets down to business on Bogor Goals

As APEC members' progress on free and open trade undergoes assessment, APEC is also looking toward future goals. Results of the assessment, say insiders, are not a point of conclusion but a means of informing future action.

According to a declaration by APEC Leaders in Bogor, Indonesia in 1994, industrialised member economies should have achieved free and open trade by 2010, and developing economies by 2020. To this end, the progress of five economies (Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the USA) is currently being examined. An additional five economies (Chile, Hong Kong China, Mexico, Peru and Singapore) have volunteered to undergo early assessment, before their own target date of 2020.

APEC is determined that the assessment is both thorough and authentic so that findings can inform future target setting. Analysis therefore includes consultation with external parties such as the World Bank, the Asian Development bank and the wider business community.

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), a body comprising some of the region's most prominent heads of business, has therefore been examining progress in tariff reductions and economic freedom to trade and invest.

ABAC's review will also consider the first-hand experiences of people conducting business throughout the region. These individuals will assess progress in their own economy and share their thoughts on a direction for APEC in the next decade.

"We intend this study to be forward-looking and to include a broader assessment of where APEC is headed post-Bogor," says Tony Nowell, Chair of the ABAC Liberalisation Working Group and ABAC New Zealand member.

Speaking at the first meeting of ABAC members in 2010, he explained that, "for ABAC, the potential benefits of a free trade area of Asia-Pacific are clear, so this is something we will consider."

The ABAC report is to be delivered in Chinese Taipei in May 2010.