Budget and Management Committee Committee on Trade and Investment Economic Committee SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation Other APEC Groups and Initiatives Agricultural Biotechnology APEC Food System APEC Study Centers Consortium Finance Ministers' Process Free Trade Agreements and Regional Trading Agreements Human Capacity Building (Beijing Initiative) Life Sciences Innovation Forum e-APEC Strategy Sustainable Development		You Are Here: Home > APEC Groups > Other APEC Groups and Initiatives > APEC Food System     In 1998 the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) called for APEC Leaders to commit to building an APEC Food System as a comprehensive approach to action in the food sector. In 1999 in Auckland, New Zealand, APEC Ministers agreed that the overriding objective in building the AFS would be "to efficiently link together food production, food processing and consumption to meet the food needs of our people as an essential part of achieving sustainable growth, equitable development and stability in the APEC region." That same year, Leaders adopted the ABAC report on the APEC Food System proposed by ABAC and endorsed its key recommendations to: - address rural infrastructure development; - disseminate technological advances in food production and processing, and - promote trade in food products. Since then , APEC has recognized that the underlying objective of ABAC's original proposal for AFS is the widening of markets into a single regional market. The desired result is to improve the efficiency of food production and trade for the benefit of APEC Member Economies. Progress on these goals is reported annually through the AFS chapter on the Individual Action Plan (IAP). In addition, all Working Groups and sub-fora include activities relevant to the APEC Food System in their SCE reports. Achievements Priority actions of the APEC Fora on the Food System include: Recommendation A. Rural Infrastructure Development The HRDWG is making it a high priority to address the issue of rural education. Recommendation B) Promotion of Trade in Food Products The CTI has continued work on promoting a more open environment to facilitate the flow of goods within the region. The SCSC has provided support for promotion of trade in food products with these major objectives (a) align APEC members' domestic standards with international standards; (b) achieve recognition of conformity assessment including mutual recognition arrangements in regulated and voluntary sectors; (c) promote cooperation for technical infrastructure development; and (d) ensure the transparency of the standards and conformity assessment of APEC economies. Recommendation C) Dissemination of Technological Advances in Food Production and Processing The ATCWG is implementing the recommendations of the AFS and acknowledges the importance of efficiency in agricultural production, supply and trade, including the importance of technology, adding value to agricultural production and improving infrastructure. The ATCWG has played a key role in the implementing the AFS. Recommendation D) Individual APEC Actions and other related actions noted above: Pursuant to the SOM decision to include member economies' reports on the AFS as a separate chapter of the IAPs, some member economies have submitted an AFS Chapter as part of their IAPs. Current Activities There has also been an increasing focus on the broader issues of food security and ensuring that this is managed so as to facilitate, and not be a barrier to trade. Other recent APEC initiatives include development of a framework to strengthen cooperation in food safety activities across member economies, as well as to share information and build capacity in the region to harmonise food safety regulatory frameworks with existing international food standards. The Joint Leader's Statement on 9 September in Sydney, Australia, emphasized the importance of food safety and agreed to "develop a more robust approach to strengthening food and consumer product safety standards , using scientific risk based approach, and without creating unnecessary impediments to trade". Moreover, the Leaders agreed that "additional capacity building in this area is a priority". As a result a key AFS activity for late 2007 and 2008 will focus on food safety which requires cross-cutting action within the individual APEC Member Economies and APEC fora involving Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG), Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), Counter Terrorism Task Force (CTTF), High Level Policy Dialogue Agricultural Biotechnology (HLPDAB), Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) and the recently established Food Safety Cooperation Forum. The first meeting of the Food Safety Cooperation Forum was held in April 2007 in the Hunter Valley with some 60 regulators from 16 economies participating. A strategy for capacity building in the region was developed by the Forum and endorsed by SCSC 2. Compliance with food safety issues are becoming an increasingly important determinant in market access. The fall-out from health scares related to food can have global and long-lasting negative consequences. It is therefore important to enhance cooperation in food safety and create the confidence for increased trade. APEC Secretariat Mr. Phanpob Plangprayoon Director (Program) E-mail: pp@apec.org		Achievements Current Activities Contact Information 2006 APEC Food System Report to Ministers (DOC,358 Kb) Toward an APEC Food System (PDF,192 Kb) APEC Individual Action Plans

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