Achievements

  
In 2007, APEC Ministers endorsed the 2007 Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) Annual Report to Ministers , which provides 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. CTI's work in 2007 was framed in the context of direction provided by Leaders and Ministers in Ha Noi, Viet Nam in November 2006.

Work plans incorporating activities with a strong capacity building element were developed in each of the key priority areas identified: support for the multilateral trading system; RTAs/FTAs; trade facilitation; digital economy and IPR; transparency and investment. Some of the key results outlined below.

• Delivered capacity building activities to assist developing members in WTO negotiations and in their implementation of WTO obligations.

• Conducted a workshop on environmental goods, focusing on clean energy technologies and water treatment.

• 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.

• Worked with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) in examining the six model measures approved by Ministers in 2006 to ensure their relevance to businesses.

• 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.

• Conducted a Symposium on Trade Facilitation, which enabled public and private sector representatives to discuss how APEC's trade facilitation activities can meet the needs of business.

• 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.

• Held the "Trading Ideas" Symposium, which examined how intellectual property laws can be harmonised to reduce red tape, piracy and counterfeiting in the Asia-Pacific region.

• 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. Fourteen economies have completed the set of 10 transparency templates and another six economies have completed several.

• 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.

• Conducted a Trade Policy Dialogue with the World Bank on Regional Integration, Transparency and Economic Development. The Dialogue raised new perspectives on the importance of transparency and the way in which transparency - or the absence of transparency - can affect domestic and foreign firms and adversely affect trade.

• 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.

• Held a Symposium on Investment Liberalisation and Facilitation, which examined high priority investment barriers and their implications.

• Welcomed the alignment of the Electronic Commerce Steering Group with CTI

• 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;

• worked more closely than ever before with the business community and ABAC, which attended key APEC fora meetings and contributed to APEC outcomes on public-private partnerships, investment and trade facilitation.

• Adopted amore strategic approach to capacity building overseen by a newly establishment informal Capacity Building Steering Group (CBSG)

• Agreed on the transfer of the Competition Policy and Deregulation group (CPDG) and the Strengthening Economic and Legal Infrastructure Coordinating group (SELI) to the Economic Committee to consolidate APEC's structural reform activities.