Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, known also under the acronym of APEC, is an international forum created in 1989 in order to enhance commercial and economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region by facilitating economic development, trading exchanges, and investments. APEC's members now include 21 countries of the Pacific Rim: the United States, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Malaysia, Brunei, Russia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, People's Republic of China, Canada, and Chile. They are usually referred to as “member economies.”

APEC's main goals, first set in 1994 at the Bogor (Indonesia) meeting, can be summed up as follows: Promotion of free and open trade in the Asia-Pacific area; facilitation of trading exchanges by the elimination of trade, tariff, and other types of barriers that make difficult economic exchanges across the Pacific; reduction of the costs of business transactions by improving access to trade information; improvement of business facilitations in order to help economic operators conduct business more efficiently; expansion of the Asia-Pacific import-export economy by providing cheaper goods and services and more employment opportunities; and enhancement of technical cooperation. Additionally APEC works toward the creation of an international space for the safe and effective movement of goods, services, and people across its member states through policy alignment on the one hand and economic and technical cooperation on the other.

APEC activities are planned and implemented with the consensual agreement of economic leaders and ministers of its member economies. During the meetings in which the representatives of each member state participate, the guidelines of APEC's activities are outlined. Member economies' representatives meet throughout the year to program future cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and further already agreed-upon projects.

The inaugural meeting of APEC was promoted by and held in Australia in January 1989. It was the then Australian prime minister who launched the idea to implement more efficient cooperation in the Asia-Pacific area. However, when APEC began it was only an informal forum for the ministers of 12 states of the Asia-Pacific region. The first APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting took place in 1993 at Blake Island in the United States under the presidency of Bill Clinton.

The meeting of the member economies' leaders held in 2007 (in Sydney, Australia), put new issues at the top of APEC's agenda, including climate change, energy security, and clean development. Participants in the meeting also emphasized the Asia-Pacific's vulnerability to natural disasters, recognizing the need for protecting the region from environmental risks. Additional economic integration in the area was also discussed, and new agreements were negotiated to further reduce trade barriers, and institutional and noninstitutional impediments to investments. The enlargement of APEC with the possible entry of more members as a tool to strengthen it was considered as well. The issue of membership, which is particularly important, will be discussed again in 2010.

APEC is financed by contributions of member economies, and the annual budget is used for developing projects and sustaining the activities of the secretariat located in Singapore. Japan is the only member that until now has provided additional funds for specific projects related to trade liberalization.

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