APEC Ministerial And Leaders' Meetings
APEC MINISTERIAL AND LEADERS' MEETINGS
Auckland, New
Zealand
September 1999
MEDIA BACKGROUNDER
APEC Ministerial And Leaders' Meetings Media Backgrounder
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
New
Zealand
September 1999
APEC Leaders will be meeting
in Auckland on 12-13 September, preceded by the APEC
Ministerial Meeting on 9-10 September. Ministers are
responsible for bringing this year's work programme to a
conclusion on the basis of instructions issued by Leaders in
Kuala Lumpur.
They will take decisions on the key issues that arise from the work programme. Discussions between Leaders are designed to be high level, strategic and forward looking with Leaders setting out overall instructions for APEC work in the year 2000.
The Ministerial and Leaders' meetings represent the culmination of the APEC process in 1999. They were preceded by Ministerial meetings on Human Resource Development (held in Washington DC 29-30 July), on Trade (held in Auckland 29-30 June), on Small and Medium Enterprises (held in Christchurch on 27-28 April). APEC Finance Ministers (which report directly to Leaders) met in Langkawi, Malaysia on 15-16 May.
Two major business events will be held in Auckland concurrently with the APEC Leaders' Meeting. The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) will meet on 11 September before delivering its report to Leaders on 12 September. Meanwhile the APEC CEOs Summit will meet on 10-12 September with several APEC Leaders and Ministers speaking at the Summit.
There will be two key areas of focus for both the Ministerial and Leaders' meetings:
·
APEC's response to the economic crisis;
· APEC support
for the WTO.
Specific outcomes will be sought in the following areas:
· Strengthening Markets: This theme has been accepted by APEC members as a major focus for its work this year. It recognises the need to address areas of structural and regulatory weakness that were exposed by the economic crisis, and the need for improved policy frameworks and human and institutional capacity to improve the functioning of markets - including financial markets - throughout the region. Both Ministers and Leaders will hold discussions under this broad theme.
· Competition
and regulatory reform: A major New Zealand initiative under
the strengthening markets theme is a draft set of principles
aimed at establishing a coherent policy framework that
encourages competition and good governance. It is hoped
that Ministers will endorse principles that have been put
forward by officials.
· Strengthening the Multilateral
Trading System: APEC's role in resisting protectionism and
continuing to push for continued liberalisation of trade and
investment in the region as essential to recovery from the
crisis and return to sustained economic growth will be a
focus of discussion. A new set of multilateral trade
negotiations is due to start late this year following a WTO
Ministerial meeting in Seattle in November/December.
Officials will discuss how APEC Ministers and Leaders in
September might influence those negotiations. Those
discussions will build on the outcome of the Auckland
meeting of Trade Ministers which agreed to support the
inclusion of industrial tariffs in the WTO
negotiations.
· Individual Action Plans: APEC economies
use these plans to record their progress towards the goals
of free trade and investment in the region by 2010/2020
agreed at Bogor, Indonesia in 1994. Ministers will receive
reviews of progress made to date with IAPs that have been
conducted by PECC (Pacific Economic Cooperation Council) and
by economies themselves. In addition, Ministers will
consider how the IAP peer review process might be further
improved. Five APEC economies - Australia, Japan, the
United States, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam -
submitted their IAPs for voluntary peer review by other APEC
economies in 1999.
· Trade Facilitation: Trade
facilitation means making it easier for businesses to trade
across borders and lowering their "red tape" costs.
Initiatives under way include business-critical areas like
mutual recognition agreements, customs harmonisation,
standards and conformance, business mobility and recognition
of qualifications. Ministers will announce a series of key
deliverables in this area while both Ministers and Leaders
are expected to set out an ambitious trade facilitation work
programme for the year 2000.
· APEC Food System: A Task
Force, co-chaired by New Zealand and Chinese Taipei, has
been studying an APEC Food System proposal put forward by
the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) in 1998. The
proposal suggests an integrated approach to food including
rural infrastructure development, technology transfer and
promotion of trade.
· Early Voluntary Sectoral
Liberalisation (EVSL): This initiative, born at the
Leaders' Meeting in Vancouver in 1997, identified 15 sectors
for removing tariff and non-tariff barriers ahead of the
Bogor time frame. APEC Ministers have agreed to transfer
the tariff elements of all the sectors to the World Trade
Organisation for negotiation. Discussion has been under way
in Geneva for some time on the first eight sectors, now
known as Accelerated Tariff Liberalisation (ATL). Ministers
will hear an update on progress with the ATL, and discuss
progress on the non-tariff elements of EVSL (facilitation,
and economic and technical cooperation measures).
·
E-commerce/Y2K: APEC's Blueprint for Action on electronic
commerce set a target of paperless trading in the region by
2005 for developed economies and 2010 for developing
economies. Officials will report on taking forward work in
this area. Ministers and Leaders will also review the
efforts under way within APEC to ensure Y2K issues are
managed as smoothly as possible at the end of this
year.
· Economic and Technical Cooperation: Discussion
will focus on improving the effectiveness and coordination
of Ecotech programmes. One specific proposal on the table
from New Zealand aims to establish a 'clearing house' which
can identify gaps between the infrastructure and technical
assistance needs of some APEC economies and the capacity of
other members to meet those needs.
· Social Impact of the
Economic Crisis: Ministers will look at how APEC is
responding to the initiative of US Secretary of State
Albright in Kuala Lumpur in November to work on the social
impact of the crisis. Priority areas include health, human
resources development, food and jobs/employment creation.
· Integration of Women in APEC: New Zealand has
co-chaired a Task Force set up to establish a framework for
the integration of women in APEC. Officials will recommend a
draft framework for endorsement by Ministers.
·
Management Review: Ministers will consider recommendations
on a number of means of focussing and streamlining APEC's
management and structure. Suggestions include reducing the
number of bodies, making more use of 'virtual' meetings and
improving the coordination between the Finance Ministers and
other APEC processes.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade
New Zealand
September
1999