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services is Hong Kong where the weight of the tertiary sector in GDP
is almost 93 %. In general, a share of tertiary sector reaches 70 % of
the regional GDP and the largest share of the available services is
provided by education, health, financial, and business services
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.
Among the unconventional service industries dominate
communication, trade, transport, and tourism which are more typical
for the less developed APEC economies.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Outline the history of APEC.
2. What are the features of APEC in comparison with other IOs?
3. Outline the aims and objectives of APEC.
4. Specify the reasons for the establishment of APEC.
Unit 8.2. Objectives and Institutional Background. The APEC
agenda is determined above all by economic issues and the meetings
of the heads of state are called meetings of the leaders of economies.
However, there were occasions in the history of the forum when
security issues were also discussed.
At the meeting in Kuching (Malaysia) in 1990, the rules were
defined on the basis of which APEC is functioning. They are:
1) Equality;
2) Total benefit;
3) Taking into account differences in the level of economic
development;
4) Conclusion of agreements on a voluntary basis;
5) Making decisions by consensus only.
Since 1993, the annual meetings of the leaders of APEC
economies are held where the agenda of the forum is determined.
The officials hold meetings and work on the agenda throughout the
year and then report on their progress to the next meeting of the
leaders of economies.
At the meeting in Bogor (Indonesia, 15 November 1994) the
mission of APEC was defined and set out in the Bogor Declaration as
well as the following goals in the area of trade and investment in the
Asia-Pacific (Bogor Goals) were formulated:
1) Formation of a free trade area (FTA);
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URL: www.apec.org/
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2) Free movement of capital in the Asia Pacific (no later than
2010 – for the developed economies and no later than 2020 – for the
developing ones).
The peculiarity of the Bogor Goals is that their achievement
should be carried out on a non-preferential basis, as APEC involves
the task of reducing trade barriers not only between member
economies, but at the global level too.
The efforts of the forum to achieve the Bogor Goals are based on
the following principles:
1) Liberalization of trade and investment;
2) Simplification of business environment;
3) Economic and technical cooperation (ECOTECH).
Discussion of the ways to implement the Bogor Goals proved difficult
and took a whole year. In 1995, the Osaka Action Agenda was approved
which determines the steps towards liberalization in fifteen areas:
1) Tariffs;
2) Non-tariff measures;
3) Services;
4) Investment;
5) Standards and conformity marks;
6) Customs procedures;
7) Intellectual property rights;
8) Competition policy;
9) Public contracts;
10) Deregulation;
11) WTO obligations;
12) Arbitration;
13) Mobility of businessmen;
14) Collection and analysis of information;
15) Improvement of the legal framework.
The Osaka summit approved the following basic principles of
APEC:
1) Comprehensiveness meaning free discussion of all the
barriers to free trade and open investment regimes;
2) Compliance to the WTO rules implying measures to reduce
barriers to trade within the context of the APEC and WTO rules and
principles;
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3) Comparison of the results achieved in the liberalization of
trade and investment with the overall level of the trade procedures
liberalization;
4) Non-discrimination within APEC;
5) Transparency of administrative procedures, laws, and
regulations in order to create transparent and predictable conditions
for trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific;
6) Moratorium on protectionist measures;
7) Synchronization of the liberalization processes and trade
facilitation;
8) Liberalization with taking into account the differences in the
levels of economic development;
9) Active economic and technical cooperation.
The individual action plans of the APEC participants have become
the main instrument for implementing the Osaka Action Agenda in
order to achieve the Bogor Goals. These plans are regularly submitted
to APEC to provide support to other economies and encourage the
active movement of each country toward the target.
In 1996, a decision was made on the possibility of concluding
bilateral free trade agreements between any of the stakeholders.
The decision proved to be effective: about fifty such agreements were
signed and are being successfully implemented.
The organizational structure of APEC includes:
1) Political level;
2) Operational level.
At the political level senior officials are accountable to the APEC
ministers and the ministers are accountable to the leaders of the
APEC member economies. Senior officials head the operational level
which includes:
1) Managing committees;
2) Sub-committees;
3) Working groups.
Another feature of APEC is its close contact with businesscommunity as well as the important role of the Business Advisory
Council (ABAC) established in 1995 and including entrepreneurs and
CEOs. The ABAC functions are following:
1) Making recommendations for the meetings of the leaders of
economies;
2) Identification of the priority areas of cooperation.
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Owing to the activities of ABAC, new ideas and areas of
cooperation emerged as well as the new investors interested in the
functioning of APEC.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Describe the rules of the APEC functioning.
2. Characterize the Bogor Declaration and its significance.
3. Outline the principles governing the policy of achieving the
objectives of APEC in accordance with the Bogor Declaration (Bogor
Goals).
4. Characterize the Osaka Action Agenda and its significance.
5. Describe the principles of the APEC operation in accordance
with the decisions of the Osaka summit.
6. Outline the organizational structure of APEC and its features:
A) Political and working levels of the APEC organizational
structure;
B) Senior officials, management committees, subcommittees,
and working groups;
C) APEC Secretariat;
D) Business Advisory Council and the role of business in
decision-making within APEC.
7. Describe the issue of free trade areas formation within APEC.
8. Explain the initiative of Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization
and its significance.
Unit 8.3. Major Activities. The first five years after the adoption of the
Bogor Declaration were marked by optimism over the APEC action
program. Serious work was done to enhance the economic and
technical cooperation as well as to strengthen the support of business
through the activities of ABAC. Forum participants endorsed the initiative
on Early Voluntary Sectorial Liberalization which is aimed at the
introduction of free trade in fifteen sectors. During this period, a number
of the APEC participants reached twenty-one and in 1998 a moratorium
on admitting new members was introduced which is still in effect.
However, the discussion of the Bogor Declaration took place on
the background of serious problems. Thus, many experts were
concerned that the proliferation of regional preferential trade
agreements (for example, the North American Free Trade Agreement)
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would undermine the foundations of the multilateral trade.
The activities of the forum were strongly influenced by the events in
the late 1990s. This period in the history of APEC was called
a
“watershed”.
The first and the most dramatic event was the Asian financial
crisis of 1997–98 having a shock effect on the economies of East Asia
and significantly undermining the credibility of APEC, which proved
unable to provide support to the most severely affected economies.
This event caused the growth of regionalism which was
expressed particularly in the establishment of the “ASEAN plus Three”
including China, Japan, South Korea, and ten Southeast Asian
countries. The failure of the initiative on Early Voluntary Sectorial
Liberalization was another important outcome.
The culmination of this chain of events was the failure of the WTO
summit in Seattle in 1999, which led to the growth of pessimism about
the liberalization of global trade. The formation of the Asia-Pacific FTA
was practically stopped for the following reasons:
1) Participant economies were too different in size to implement
the FTA plan: on the one hand, there is China with a population of 1.4
billion, but on the other hand – Brunei with about 350 thousand
inhabitants;
2) Development gap between member economies (highly
developed Australia, Japan, United States and much less developed
Papua New Guinea, Peru, etc.);
3) Difference in the rates of economic development, different
foreign policies, and as a consequence – strong protectionism in
some countries and free liberal economy – in the others (for example,
the average duty rate in Singapore is 2 %, while in Malaysia – 42 %).
Moreover, achieving this goal was hampered by the fact that
APEC is not the association where decisions are binding on all its
members, but rather an organization whose decisions are strictly
advisory.
However, a failure in the formation of the FTA had not just
weakened APEC but also prompted its participants interested in the
developing foreign economic relations in the region to find the new
innovative ways to strengthen economic ties between them. Such
means had been found and proved quite effective. Thus, APEC had
expanded its program of action and moved the emphasis on the
implementation of the following priority tasks:
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1) The Bogor Goals remain relevant in the area of trade
liberalization but the new approaches and mechanisms ought to be
provided to achieve them;
2) Focus must be shifted toward the improvement of business
conditions in the region;
3) Ease of Doing Business program should be developed
actively;
4) Series of programs to improve the terms of international trade
in the region were proposed;
5) APEC Business Travel Card scheme was adopted allowing
businessmen to travel without visas within the region;
6) So-called “digital economy” and electronic commerce should
occupy an increasingly important place on the APEC agenda as well
as paying more attention to the relationships of technological chains;
7) Interests of different sectors in the Asia-Pacific economy
should be discussed in the framework of the APEC Industry
Dialogues;
8) Subcommittees on customs procedures, standards, and
conformity marks should function more actively;
9) Initiatives in the field of the economic and technical
cooperation should be aimed at the implementation of the priorities of
individual economies rather than at the development of general
program;
10) Paying more attention to the new global and regional threats.
Thus, a special group to combat terrorism was set up after the
terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001.
The APEC group to combat corruption was also formed. The activities
of the Group for health protection are associated with the
development of programs to ensure health of the population in the
region and combat the pandemics of SARS, bird and swine flu, and
others. High vulnerability of the Asia-Pacific nations to natural
disasters has led to the emphasis on emergency preparedness.
In recent years the programs are developed whose objectives include:
1) Reduction in energy consumption;
2) Fighting climate change;
3) Food security in the region.
Like other international organizations, APEC seeks ways out of
global financial crisis. Great importance is currently attached to the
institutional strengthening of the association, especially to the
Secretariat and the APEC Policy Support Unit. New items on the
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association’s agenda are carrying out profound structural reforms as a
precondition for successful regional integration, as well as analysis of
the achievements in this field.
It was decided that the APEC participants may take unilateral
measures to promote the development of trade and economic
relations which involves the following steps:
1) Removal of barriers to trade;
2) Harmonization of tariffs and tariff policy;
3) Mutual recognition of production certificates;
4) Reduction of duties on the goods not competing with domestic
ones.
To stimulate practical activities in these areas, the APEC
Secretariat had made up a list of fifteen measures which all the
participants could take unilaterally. However, only nine of these
measures were implemented. It was also decided that each APEC
participant will have to report on the results of the activities in this or
that direction at the summit of the leaders of the APEC member
economies.
The original goal of establishing a FTA was transformed as well:
a decision was made at the APEC summit in Lima (Peru, 22–23
November 2008) to consider the establishment of such a zone as a
long-term goal. The Singapore summit of APEC (14–15 November
2009) adopted the New Strategy for a Balanced, Inclusive,
Sustainable, Innovative, and Secure Growth. These measures
resulted in further enhancing economic integration in the Asia-Pacific.
During the 2000s, many proposals were made to develop and
deepen economic integration in the region which may be subdivided
into the East Asian and Trans-Pacific directions.
The most significant event on the East Asian direction was the
proposal of the “ASEAN plus Three” to establish a FTA. The “ASEAN
plus Six” group including the “ASEAN Plus Three”, Australia, India,
and New Zealand had taken the initiative of the ASEAN Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership which led to the emergence of
such an important institution as the East Asia Summit.
At the same time, there was a noticeable decrease in optimism
on the Trans-Pacific direction after the dramatic events of the late
1990s. However, in 2004, the idea of the Trans-Pacific integration was
born as well as the proposal to create a FTA in the Asia-Pacific
advanced by ABAC. Having initially received a critical evaluation from
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the APEC leaders, this initiative occupied an important place on the
forum agenda in subsequent years.
The Trans-Pacific area received an additional impetus due to the
negotiations on the establishment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
launched in 2010. These negotiations were initiated by the United
States and reflected strategic changes in the US economic policy and
its shift towards East Asia. The implication of this initiative is that it can
be a step towards the establishment of a FTA in the Asia-Pacific.
In 2010, the leaders of the APEC economies made a statement
meaning in fact the convergence of these two trends. The initiative to
establish a FTA is now perceived as an important tool for the longterm regional economic integration. A decision was made to take
specific steps towards its implementation.
The initiatives of the “ASEAN plus Three” and the “ASEAN plus
Six”, as well as the initiative to establish the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
had been considered as the ways to the establishment of a FTA in the
region. This initiative is defined as an ultimate goal of economic
cooperation on the East Asian and Trans-Pacific directions.
The result of these steps was the intensification of activities on
both directions. For example, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea
took some specific steps to establish a FTA among them which in its
turn could become an important step in the future regional integration.
The negotiations on liberalization of foreign trade are conducted on
a bilateral level as well as in other formats such as, for example, the
“ASEAN plus China”. It should be noted, that under the influence of
ASEAN many principles of this association were extended on APEC:
1) “Soft institutionalism” as opposed to “hard institutionalism”
characterizing the European Union;
2) Deliberations on all the important issues;
3) Decision making by consensus;
4) Absence of a rigid binding decisions which means slowness of
decision-making.
Thus, APEC is now evolving in three main directions:
1) Summits, where the ABAC offers play an important role;
2) Concluding bilateral agreements on a FTA;
3) Unilateral actions of the APEC members.
The last two points are of the greatest practical importance;
however, the summits also play an important role.
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The overall result of the APEC activities is that mutual trade of the
forum participants increased from 71 % in 1993 to 73 % in 2008
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.
Finally, the specifics of APEC in comparison with other
international organizations in the Asia-Pacific are following:
1) In terms of geography, APEC includes a majority of their
members;
2) Primary focus on the issues of foreign trade liberalization by
the forum participants.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Characterize the Asian economic crisis of 1997–98 and trace
its relationships with the changes in the APEC organizational structure
and activities.
2. Characterize the global financial crisis of 2007–08 and its
impact on the development of economic integration within APEC.
3. Outline the APEC New Strategy for a Balanced, Inclusive,
Sustainable, Innovative, and Secure Growth, its features and
significance.
4. Describe the East Asian and Trans-Pacific trends in the
development of the integration within APEC.
5. Characterize the impact of ASEAN on APEC.
6. Outline the main contradictions and imbalances in economic
development of the APEC member nations.
Topics for Discussion
1. Policy of trade liberalization within APEC: problems and
achievements.
2. Creation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its significance
for the development of the economic integration within APEC.
Unit 8.4. Russia and APEC. An integral part of the Asia-Pacific is the
Russian Federation due to its geographical situation and the level of
economic and social development. In recent years, Russia’s attention
to APEC is growing rapidly.
The reasons for which Russia attaches a great importance to the
economic cooperation with APEC are several.
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URL: www.apec.org/
119
First, Russia is attracted by the unique composition of the
association including such nations as China, Japan, and the US.
Second, Russian participation in the forum should at least presumably
help to accelerate the development of Siberia and the Far East.
In July 1996, two years before Russia’s joining the forum, the
inter-ministerial commission for APEC was established. This
commission carried out preparation of the documents required for a
positive decision on the admission of the Russian Federation to the
organization.
Then, the cooperation strategy began to develop. In particular,
the Concept of the Russian Federation in APEC had been formulated
by 2000, containing specific activities to implement the strategy.
Building-up volumes and geographical diversification of economic
cooperation with the forum participants became its focus.
The next point was the rapid growth of imports and an increase in
foreign investment coupled with the advanced technology. It had been
followed by the intensification of cooperation in energy, transport,
communications, science and technology, as well as by the use of the
Pacific Ocean resources, Russia’s integration into the processes and
mechanisms of the Asia-Pacific economic interaction involving
industrial cooperation which forms the basis for the stable integration
relations.
The cooperation between Russia and APEC is not confined to
official recommendations and statements by senior management.
Among other things, it is based on the ABAC activities where three
Russian representatives are permanently involved, including one from
“Gazprom”. Their goal is to find the areas of mutual trade and
investment interests with their partners.
The main results of cooperation in the framework of the forum are
the following:
1) Attracting energy companies from the APEC member
countries, such as China, Japan, South Korea, and the US, to the
project “Sakhalin-2”;
2) Production development and the start of exports of the
liquefied natural gas from the fields in Eastern Siberia;
3) Completion of the first stage of the oil pipeline “Eastern
Siberia – Pacific Ocean”;
4) Starting military and technical cooperation with new partners,
for example, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, and Thailand.
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