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| APEC To Work Towards Free Trade Area |
by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong
Monday, November 16, 2009
Ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries held
their 21st meeting on November 11-12 in Singapore. Their discussions centered
on the progress made towards regional integration and the promotion of free
and open trade and investment.
In the joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers said they remain
concerned over the threat of protectionism to economic recovery. They reaffirmed
“the concrete commitments undertaken at the Singapore Meeting of Ministers
Responsible for Trade in July 2009 to keep our markets open and resist
all forms of protectionism, including the extension of our commitment to refrain
from raising new barriers to investments or to trade in goods and services to
the end of 2010, and beyond if necessary.”
“We are pleased that the APEC region as a whole has remained relatively
open to trade throughout the global crisis,” they added. “We recognize
the need to calibrate overall policy settings, including temporary support measures,
to the pace of recovery and improvement in the global economy. We will continue
to undertake regular review of our policies that impact on trade and investment,
and reiterate our pledge to maintain free and open markets.”
Specifically, the ministers reaffirmed “APEC's commitment to the Bogor
Goals of free and open trade and investment. APEC will work towards reducing
barriers not only within APEC, but also with other non-APEC economies.”
And, in addition, they would “welcome work to continue to explore building
blocks towards a possible Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).”
They requested further studies “which illustrated the possible economic
benefits and challenges of establishing an FTAAP; the updated inventory of issues
that would need to be addressed as part of a preparatory process for a possible
FTAAP including, inter-alia, the possible pathways to an FTAAP; and the expansion
of the study on identifying convergences and divergences in APEC's regional
and bilateral trade agreements to cover additional agreements and chapters.”
APEC officials have been asked to take forward this work by exploring a range
of possible pathways to achieve FTAAP and provide a progress update to their
next annual meeting.
They also welcomed “the steps taken by officials to promote greater convergence
in the areas of rules of origin and services. They instructed officials “to
widen their work to promote convergence on other core FTA chapters, including
investment, trade facilitation, and standards.
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