Achievements
In 2007, APEC Ministers endorsed the 2007
Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) Annual Report to Ministers, which
provided an overview of CTI's work program in pursuit of advancing the Bogor
Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. Some key
results:
- Agreed on three
sets of model measures, for RTAs/FTAs in the following areas: electronic
commerce; rules of origin and origin procedures; and sanitary and
phytosanitary measure, which complement the seven
endorsed by Ministers in 2005 and 2006.
- Agreed on APEC's
Second Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP II) to reduce trade
transaction costs in the Asia-Pacific region by a further 5 percent by 2010.
- Developed a set of Model
Guidelines to Strengthen IPR Capacity Building, which will help member
economies devise more effective activities to promote IPR protection and
enforcement.
- Developed an APEC
Cooperation Initiative on Patent Acquisition Procedures.
- Agreed on an APEC
Best Practices Paper on Innovative Techniques for IPR Border Enforcement.
- Increased participation in the Pathfinder on APEC Technology Choice
Principles with Malaysia's agreement to join, bringing the number of
participating economies to 15;
- Assessed members' implementation of APEC's transparency standards. The
review of economies' submissions indicates that most members have
implemented APEC's General and Area-Specific Transparency Standards
- Commissioned a report by the World Bank on the trade-related regulatory
environment in APEC economies, which concluded that the collective trade
performance of APEC economies would be boosted by USD$148 billion from
greater trade policy predictability and simplification.
- Completed Stage 2 of the study on "Enhancing Investment
Liberalisation and Facilitation in Economic Development in the Asia-Pacific
Region", which examined ways to reduce "behind-the-border"
barriers to domestic investment.
- Launched a Pathfinder
on Data Privacy, which will improve the protection of private
information in the APEC region and increase trust in electronic commerce;
- Completed a review of the implementation of its existing TILF-related
Pathfinder initiatives and revised Annex A to the 2004 Pathfinder
Initiatives Guidelines to clarify the two ways in which a pathfinder could
be developed; and
- Adopted amore strategic approach to capacity building overseen by a newly
establishment informal Capacity Building Steering Group (CBSG)
For 2008, CTI is focusing its work program on the Regional
Economic Integration (REI) report that was endorsed by APEC Leaders in
September 2007. At its first meeting in Lima in February, the Committee adopted,
amongst other things, work plans with clear time frames, objectives and
deliverables in 3 key areas: RTAs/FTAs, Trade Facilitation and Digital Economy
and Strengthening IPR:
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The work plan for RTAs/FTAs aims at completing
model measures for commonly accepted RTA and FTA chapters, as called for in
the 2005 Busan Roadmap. The work plan also takes into account relevant
aspects of APEC's work on REI.
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The work plan on trade facilitation aims at
progressing the implementation of TFAP II. Its also incorporates work to be
undertaken in response to Ministers' instructions to consider the findings
of the World Bank study on "Transparency and Trade Facilitation in the
Asia-Pacific: Estimating the Gains from Reforms" in the further development
of APEC's trade facilitation and transparency agenda.
CTI and its sub-fora have commenced with the development of key performance
indicators (KPIs) to measure the progress of collective actions and
pathfinders in TFAP II.
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The work plan on the digital economy and strengthening
IPR focuses on (i) increasing participation in and implementation of the
Pathfinder on the APEC Technology Choice Principles; (ii) implementation of
the 2002 Leaders' Digital Statement, and APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy
Initiative to reduce piracy, including online piracy, and trade in
counterfeit goods; (iii) explore opportunities for cooperation and
information sharing to improve the IPR protection systems in the APEC
economies; and (iv) increasing cooperation, training and capacity building
programs on intellectual property rights protection and enforcement, as well
as commercialization.
A Trade Policy Dialogue on aspects of the relationship
between investment, trade in services and trade in goods relationship was
jointly organized by the Investment Experts Group (IEG), Group On Services (GOS)
and Market Access Group (MAG) on 25 February 2008 in Lima. The points raised at
the dialogue aimed to provide economies with preliminary ideas about the
elements that go into making investment decisions and hence could facilitate the
work on developing an Investment Facilitation Action Plan.
