2006 Meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade
We welcomed the participation of the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and the APEC Secretariat.
The meeting proceeded under the overarching APEC 2006 theme: "Towards a dynamic community for sustainable development and prosperity." We welcomed the report of the Chair of the APEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on the progress of APEC work embedded in priorities for 2006 and encouraged officials to continue their efforts so that meaningful deliverables can be reached by the time we meet again for the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in November.
1. APEC's Contribution to the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations
We reaffirmed the importance of supporting an open, rules-based, multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO) for global economic growth and development. We noted the urgency of advancing the DDA negotiations and issued a separate Statement on the DDA.
We noted with satisfaction greater interaction between the APEC Caucus in Geneva and the SOM process aimed at maximizing APEC's contributions to the DDA negotiations.
Active engagement of the private sector and other stakeholders plays a vital role in the development of the multilateral trading system. We welcomed ABAC's efforts in pushing the DDA process and views raised by the private sector at the Business Symposium on Trade and Investment held in Ho Chi Minh City on the margins of MRT 12.
2. WTO Capacity Building
We reaffirmed the importance of capacity building in enabling Members to fully participate in the WTO in general and in the DDA negotiations in particular. We welcomed progress achieved collectively and individually by APEC member economies and relevant committees in the implementation of capacity building initiatives, including the result of evaluation of APEC's past capacity building activities with the recommendations for the future activities. We welcomed the APEC Training Course on Multi-Stakeholder Trade Policy Consultations held in Da Nang, Viet Nam, on 22-24 March 2006 and the initiative of China to hold a workshop on Rules Negotiation of trade in service in Kunming in July 2006.
3. Accession of APEC Members to the WTO
We welcomed the recent progress made in the WTO accession negotiations for Viet Nam. We reaffirmed our strong support for efforts to complete a strong commercial agreement multilaterally that will lead to the rapid conclusion of negotiations for the accession of Viet Nam by the time our Leaders meet in November this year.
We also welcomed the considerable progress of the Russian Federation in the WTO accession and underlined the importance of efforts to expedite conclusion of a strong commercial agreement.
We had a fruitful discussion on developments regarding RTAs/FTAs in the region. We reaffirmed that high-quality, transparency and broad consistency in RTAs/FTAs are important avenues to achieving the Bogor goals of free and open trade and investment in the region. We also reaffirmed that APEC would continue to work for high quality and comprehensive RTAs/FTAs in the region and instructed our officials to continue their work on the development of model measures as agreed in 2005 in Busan .
We welcomed Viet Nam's initiative in hosting the 4th SOM Policy Dialogue on RTAs/FTAs, which included discussion with the private sector, held on 28th May in Ho Chi Minh City and took note of the outcomes of the Dialogue.
In line response to our Leaders' call for the development of model measures for as many commonly accepted FTA chapters as possible by 2008, we encouraged those member economies and relevant sub-fora to engage in developing model measures to take account of the Dialogue's recommendations, we instructed Officials to continue ongoing work so that meaningful and useful model measures for commonly accepted chapters can be reported back to Ministers and Leaders for endorsement in November 2006, bearing in mind the non binding, non-prescriptive and voluntary nature of those model measures. We also reaffirmed that these model measures will not prejudice the position of APEC member economies in their existing and future RTAs/FTAs negotiation.
We noted the interests and concerns of the business sector regarding the proliferation of RTAs/FTAs in the APEC region and affirmed our efforts to maximise the benefit from and mitigate the negative effects of these RTAs/FTAs and to promote transparency in this area. We agreed to engage the private sector in SOM Policy dialogues on RTAs/FTAs on a regular basis and encouraged SOM to continue interaction with the private sector and other stakeholders to ensure that APEC's work on RTAs/FTAs continues to be responsive and relevant to their interests.
We supported capacity building initiatives to help member economies, especially developing economies, enhance their negotiations skills for RTAs/FTAs.
We affirmed the resolution of member economies to achieve Bogor Goals in 2010/2020 and the importance of implementing the Busan Roadmap, which was agreed to in 2005 to accelerate progress towards the Bogor Goals. We commended Senior Officials' efforts in developing an action plan to advance the Busan Roadmap. We endorsed the framework for the action plan which includes the development of early harvest deliverables and encouraged SOM and relevant committees to intensify their efforts to develop a strong, balanced and concrete action plan for endorsement at the next AMM.
We stressed the importance of formulating concrete and viable action plans, reviewing the progress of their implementation, and take further actions if necessary in consultation with ABAC and the business community in general.
We reaffirmed our commitment to achieving the objective of trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation in the APEC region by 2010 and 2020, and resolved to push it forward continually.
1. Trade Facilitation
We welcomed the preliminary results of the review of the 2001 Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP) showing a five (5) percent reduction in trade transaction costs by 2006. We supported a collective and action-oriented approach to APEC trade facilitation aiming at a further 5% reduction in trade transaction costs in the APEC region by 2010. We instructed SOM, including CTI and its sub-for a such as the Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures , the Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance, and the Business Mobility Group, to develop a list of collective actions that all economies will take, as well as associated capacity building activities, in order to facilitate trade for endorsement at the 2006 Annual Ministerial Meeting.
We stressed the importance of strengthening Public-Private partnership in delivering trade facilitation initiatives. We noted with satisfaction the outcomes of the APEC Public-Private Dialogue on Trade Facilitation hosted by Viet Nam on 23-24 May 2006. We particularly welcomed the proposal on strengthening the partnership between APEC, the private sector and international organisations in a range of activities, including policy making, infrastructure improvements, human resources development, capacity building and outreach activities.
2. Investment
We reaffirmed the importance of investment liberalization and facilitation as an integral part of APEC's agenda to achieve the Bogor Goals and foster economic growth in the APEC region. We had a fruitful discussion on regional investment trends and reaffirmed our commitment to foster a favourable investment environment for business in the region. In this regard, we instructed officials to develop an expanded work program to facilitate investments in the region.
We stressed the need of targeted capacity building for member economies to pursue investment liberalization and facilitation in the APEC region. In this regards, we appreciated Viet Nam's initiative in holding the recent APEC Seminar on transnational private investment trends in Ho Chi Minh City on 19-20 May and stressed the importance of applying best practices, including existing guidelines such as NBIP, in attracting investment flows to APEC economies. We also welcomed China's initiative to hold a workshop on non-discriminatory treatment in investment agreements in September and Mexico's for the joint APEC-UNCTAD research and seminar on State-Investor Dispute Settlement.
In order to facilitate investment, we reaffirmed the importance of developing tools for policy coherence in cooperation with the OECD, holding a public-private sector dialogue to identify high-priority issues and develop policy measures and implementing advanced capacity building projects in response to the needs of public and private sectors.
3. Individual and Collective Action Plans
We recognized the role of Individual Action Plans (IAPs) and Collective Action Plans (CAPs) as useful tools to implement the Bogor Goals. We encouraged member economies to conduct a new cycle of IAPs peer review in a robust, forward looking and inclusive manner. We commended efforts by Australia; Hong Kong, China; Japan; and Chinese Taipei and endorsed IAPs submitted by these economies for public release.
We welcomed the proposal to enhance the engagement of ABAC, CTI and relevant fora in all IAP peer reviews in the future. We noted the forecast of expected TILF deliverables for 2006.
4. Pathfinder Initiatives
We agreed on the importance of strengthening pathfinder initiatives to make full use of this method to speed up trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in the region. We welcomed progress in developing a framework for evaluating pathfinder initiatives to improve the efficiency of the pathfinder approach.
We welcomed progress made by economies on the Technology Choice Pathfinder initiative and agreed it would advance the 2002 Leaders' Pathfinder to Implement APEC Polices on Trade and Digital Economy. We agreed to develop a stand-alone Technology Choice Pathfinder, and work on its details, for Ministers and Leaders to endorse at the 2006 AMM and Leaders' Meeting. We encouraged members to continue to identify additional areas as potential candidates for the path-finder approach.
Strengthened Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Enforcement
We recognized that trade of counterfeit and pirated goods is a serious threat to business and could hamper investment, innovation and economic development in the region, and that APEC should continue to play a meaningful role to help members put into place appropriate legal regimes and enforcement systems for intellectual property rights protection. As agreed at the MRT last year in Jeju, "We urged economies to take concrete steps to reduce trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, curtail online piracy, and increase cooperation and capacity building."
We encouraged economies to further build on the work of the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Initiative, and instructed them to continue their work on two additional model guidelines (to ensure that supply chains are free of counterfeit and pirated goods as well as model guidelines for effective IPR public awareness campaigns) and report back to the APEC Ministerial Meeting and Leaders' Meeting in November 2006 for endorsement.
Also to support the APEC Anti-Counterfeiting and Piracy Initiative, we recommended inclusion in the 2006 Leaders' Declaration of a statement urging government entities do not use illegal software and other content on their computer systems and networks, especially pertaining to Internet usage.
We emphasized the importance of providing useful tools for the private sector and welcomed the progress on establishment of IPR Service Centers in 13 economies, and encouraged the rest of the economies to set up centers as soon as possible. We also welcomed progress in exchanging information on our IPR websites, IPR contact points and IPR enforcement officials and look forward to additional steps by the APEC Ministerial Meeting and Leaders' Meeting in November 2006 to apply the APEC Effective Practices for Regulations Related to Optical Disc Production.
We called on economies to steadily implement the APEC Model Guidelines to Reduce Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods, to Protect Against Unauthorized Copies, and to Prevent the Sale of Counterfeit and Pirated Goods over the Internet, including by sharing experiences and good practices in implementing those Model Guidelines. Recognizing the differences of economic development level among APEC members, we also called for technical assistance in capacity building for developing members.
1. Transparency and Anti-corruption
We recognized that corruption undermines economic performance, weakens good governance, creates barriers to trade and investment and eventually hampers APEC's efforts to achieve prosperity and sustainable growth and development in the region. Fighting corruption and promoting transparency, coupled by market integrity and good corporate governance practices, are critical to promoting a more favourable business environment and to advancing our overall APEC trade and security agenda.
We welcomed the outcome of the second meeting of the APEC Anti-Corruption and Transparency (ACT) Task Force held on the margins of SOM I in Ha Noi. We commended the ACT Work Plan for 2006 which focused on eight key anti-corruption areas, and urged member economies to turn commitments into concrete actions by completing their preliminary progress reports by the SOM III ACT Task Force meeting. We appreciated ACT's efforts in developing a Capacity Building Framework and Proposal to Undertake Stocktake of International Legal Agreements on Mutual Legal Assistance, Extradition and Assets Recovery and encouraged the ACT Task Force to continue their efforts to work inter-sessionally and at SOM III so as to have a concrete project by the end of 2006.
We applauded member economies for their efforts made in fighting against corruption. We welcomed the workshop on Fighting Corruption and Ensuring Transparency jointly organized by Australia and Viet Nam in January 2006 in Hanoi and the similar workshop co-hosted by Australia and the Philippines in January 2006 in Manila. We took note of the outcome of the Canadian-organized workshop on Anti-corruption Measures for the Development of SMEs in February 2006. We appreciated the jointly-sponsored workshop by China and the United States on Denial of Safe Haven, Asset Recovery, and Extradition held in April 2006 in Shanghai, China and the 3rd ICAC Symposium in May 2006 in Hong Kong, China.
We reiterated the significance of public-private coordination on anti-corruption and ensuring transparency and looked forward to the Public and Private Dialogue on Anti-corruption and Ensuring Transparency in Business which will be held on the margins of SOM III in Viet Nam and look forward to the recommendations and deliverables to Ministers and Leaders as will be outlined in the ACT Task Force's "road map" for the 2006 Leaders' Meeting.
We reiterated the importance of implementation of APEC's general and area-specific Transparency Standards and instructed Senior Officials to complete the assessment of implementation of the Transparency Standards by the 2006 AMM.
2. Secure Trade
We noted that the ongoing threat of terrorism in the APEC region and elsewhere continues to pose a real challenge to our common goal of safe and secure trade. We, therefore, reiterated our commitment to take necessary and timely actions to improve trade security while ensuring a favorable business environment in the region.
We welcomed SOM endorsement of three new initiatives from the Counter Terrorism Task Force including a food defense initiative to mitigate the terrorist threat to the food-supply, capacity building on anti-terrorist financing, and development of an APEC Counter-Terrorism Review handbook. We welcomed progress in implementing the work undertaken and progress made by the Counter-Terrorism Task Force (CTTF) in implementing the initiatives endorsed by Leaders in Busan on the safe handling of trade in radioactive sources, the reduction of airport vulnerability to Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) and Total Supply Chain Security. In this regard, we look forward to the Total Supply Chain Security Symposium to be held in Singapore from 6-7 July 2006. We welcomed the successful completion of the Counter-Terrorism Action Plans (CTAPs) cross-analysis and encouraged the delivery of appropriate capacity building programs based on the findings of the study. We emphasized the importance of the submission of comprehensive CTAPs by member economies.
We welcomed the successful outcomes and recommendations of the Fourth Secure Trade in the APEC Region Conference (STAR IV) which aimed to further enhance private and public partnership in the implementation of secure trade measures. We welcomed and further encouraged the active participation of the private sector and the business community in the implementation of the STAR Initiative. We stressed the importance of balancing the efforts to secure trade and the implementation of trade facilitation measures so as to ensure both security and economic efficiency and to minimize the transaction costs borne by the business community as well as the burden placed on the developing economies as a result of increased security measures.
We noted Leaders' endorsement of the APEC Framework for Secure Trade based on the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade and encouraged APEC members' customs administrations to expeditiously implement the standards contained within that Framework.
We reaffirmed that capacity building is essential to help member economies to implement security related initiatives. We agreed that the design and implementation of security initiatives should take into account the difference in levels of development among member economies.
We welcomed the substantial progress made in the Regional Trade and Financial Security Initiative to support APEC's on-going work on counter-terrorism, and encouraged member economies to contribute to the Asian Development Bank's Fund. We noted the positive results from the donor review of this fund which highlighted the significant progress made in the projects to combat anti-money laundering and terrorist financing.
We welcomed the launch of the Customs Demonstration Project between the Government of Vietnam and the United States Trade and Development Agency and the private sector. We noted that this project's implementation of the e-Manifest and security enhancements based on the APEC Framework for Secure Trade will provide significant benefits to the business sector while helping to modernize Vietnam customs clearance processes and can be a potential model for replication in other APEC economies.
We welcomed efforts to secure travel by the expansion of the Regional Movement Alert List (RMAL) pilot program between Australia and the United States to a trilateral pilot program with the inclusion of New Zealand on March 31, 2006. We recognized RMAL's capacity to combat the individual movement of terrorists within the region, while facilitating the movement of legitimate business people, by detecting the fraudulent use of travel documents issued by participating member economies.
3. Health security
We recognized the direct economic costs of the H5N1 virus borne by the affected economies, and we also note the broad social, economic, and security impacts that a potential influenza pandemic could have on the prosperity and economic development of individual economies and the entire region. The continuity of business, trade, travel, and essential services is an important component in preparedness planning for a pandemic. In this context, we emphasized the need to ensure that trade and travel management practices are based on the best available science and are in accordance with relevant international standard setting bodies and meet WTO obligations.
We welcomed and highly appreciated the outcome of the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Avian and Influenza Pandemics organized on 4-6 May 2006 in Da Nang, Viet Nam. The APEC Action Plan on Prevention and Response to Avian and Influenza Pandemics will guide APEC efforts to prevent and respond to avian and influenza pandemics. We urged member economies to make every effort to implement the adopted Action Plan and to take necessary measures to mitigate the impacts of pandemics on regional economic development. We also applauded the Beijing Consensus coming out of the APEC Symposium on Emerging Infectious Diseases held in April 2006, and welcomed the ABAC's work developed over the past year on emergency preparedness and private sector response to a health emergency. We looked forward to the APEC Capacity Building Seminar on Avian Influenza to be held in Viet Nam in September this year.
We welcomed the 2006-2007 Work Plan of the APEC Health Task Force (HTF) and encouraged members to work with the HTF in implementing the Work Plan to help ensure human health and promote a safe and secure business environment in the region.
4. Emergency Preparedness
We welcomed the APEC 2006 Work Plan of the Task Force on Emergency Preparedness (TFEP) endorsed by SOM on 29 May 2006. We instructed TFEP to expedite the further development of its official website, and to ensure the reliability and availability of disaster related information to the public and disaster management agencies among APEC members.
We recognised the importance of building capacity in emergency response and preparedness to help reduce the economic costs of disasters and combat the threat of possible pandemics. We welcomed and looked forward to the successful implementation of APEC Pandemic Response Simulation Exercise, which will be an important step to implement the "APEC Initiative on Preparing for and Mitigating an Influenza Pandemic" endorsed by our Leaders in 2005. We instructed Senior Officials to report on the lessons and recommendations drawn from the Exercise to the AMM. WE noted the work of the taskforce and other fora to develop best practice in emergency management and encouraged the sharing of information and expertise to assist all APEC economies in the event of a disaster or human pandemic. We also encouraged the taskforce to continue to build its outreach activities to ensure the reliability and availability of disaster related information to the public and disaster management agencies in APEC economies.
5. Private Sector Development
We agreed on the importance of promoting private sector development, with the emphasis laid on the vital role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for economic growth and trade expansion in the APEC region. We noted progress of the initiative on developing a Private Sector Development agenda for APEC to create an enabling environment for small business. In this context, we welcomed the outcomes of the recent "Ease of Doing Business: Canada/New Zealand Joint APEC Symposium on Private Sector Development." We especially welcomed the presence of many ABAC members at this event.
We reiterated the importance to all APEC economies of improving the business environment in the region through measures such as those identified in the symposium, including simplifying regulations governing basic business functions, increasing transparency, and promoting access to financing by small and medium enterprises. We encouraged senior officials to work with the World Bank and ABAC in order to bring forward a proposal to the 2006 AMM and AELM that identifies priority areas in which APEC can set targets and build capacity, lays out a roadmap for future work and uses the World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" index as a reference to monitor ongoing progress.
We stressed that APEC should make efforts to promote international trade for SMEs and MEs that have high export potential but lack channels and capacity to conduct export. In this context, we welcomed the fruitful outcomes of the 4th APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Technology Conferences and Fair held in Qingdao, China in May 2006. We also encouraged members to identify measures and build capacity to enhance competitiveness of SMEs and MEs at the APEC/SME Seminar on Support for Local and Cottage Industries, namely, APEC "One Village One Products" Seminar, to be held in Ha Noi, Viet Nam in September 2006, and expected the outcome would contribute to the SME Ministerial Meeting this year. We considered the APEC Local Cultural Industry Virtual Exposition, proposed by Chinese Taipei, to be an attempt to bring new business opportunities in overseas markets to such SMEs and micro-enterprises through innovative Internet-based expositions.
6. Structural Reform
We acknowledged the importance of structural reform to the realization of the benefits of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. We encouraged members to share policy experience for market-oriented economic reform and draw on these experiences when undertaking structural reform.
In this regard, we instructed officials to effectively implement the APEC Work Plan on LAISR Towards 2010 (LAISR 2010) based on a detailed forward work program. We look forward to the new annual EC publication on economic policy and structural reform issues. We encouraged APEC members to draw on the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist on Regulatory Reform. We look forward to the Economic Committee's Public Sector Governance Seminar to be held later in 2006. We are pleased that there has been active progress towards better coordination among relevant APEC fora such as EC, CPDG, SELI and FMP.
We also encouraged officials to follow up on the Menu of Options for SELI, which include development and early implementation of cooperative projects in capacity and institutional building, corporate law, and competition law/policy. We looked forward to holding the Seminar for Sharing Experiences in APEC Economies on Strengthening the Economic Legal Infrastructure in Viet Nam in February 2007.
7. Energy Security
We reiterated the concerns of member economies about the impact of sustained high oil prices, noting once again that effective responses require a range of supply and demand side measures. We recognized the establishment of an APEC Biofuels Task Force, which will focus on issues such as economics, infrastructure, resources and trade. We encouraged the Energy Working Group (EWG) to continue its work on adopting best practice principles to facilitate cross-border energy trade, energy investment and emergency preparedness, its implementation of initiatives on LNG public education and information and on financing of high-performance buildings and communities. We recognized the importance of EWG efforts to improve the collection of energy data and to support the development and uptake of technologies for renewable energy, clean fossil energy, and energy efficiency. We continued to affirm our support for the full range of activities under the Energy Security Initiative and CAIRNS Initiative.
We reaffirmed the pivotal role of ECOTECH as a vital pillar of APEC cooperation and expressed our strong commitment to ECOTECH activities to help support the trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation agenda. We welcomed the strengthened SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE) with its revised terms of reference and 2006 priorities aimed at empowering this body to live up to the task of providing strategic and effective guidance to technical and economic cooperation activities in APEC. We encouraged the Committee to provide strategic and effective guidance to technical and economic cooperation activities in APEC.
We also welcomed SOM's adoption of the SCE 2006 Work Plan, including a review of the implementation of the 1995 Osaka Action Agenda ECOTECH provisions, the 1996 Manila Declaration and the ECOTECH wide priorities, with recommendations for improving the future ECOTECH activities. We also welcomed SCE's cooperation program with international financial institutions (IFIs) and the private sector and its update on the progress of the review of the TORs of Working Groups, Task Forces and Networks. We instructed officials, in close collaboration with all related APEC fora, to identify specific capacity building measures across the areas identified in the framework of the action plan to implement the Busan Roadmap towards Bogor Goals.
We welcome the new mandate given to the Economic Committee (EC) to lead the research on socio-economic disparity issues this year and emphasized the importance of expanding the circle of beneficiaries of economic growth generated by trade and investment liberalization. We look forward to the successful Symposium on Socio-economic Disparity to be held in late June in Seoul.
We recognized that expanding and improving the digital capabilities and skills of all APEC member economies are not only crucial in addressing the gaps caused by the digital divide but also important in turning such divide into opportunities. In this context, we welcomed the continuous efforts and contributions made by the APEC Digital Opportunity Centre (ADOC). We also encouraged member economies to participate further in ADOC and to cooperate in strengthening IT infrastructure and human capacity building.
1. Dialogue with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC)
We recognized that a close relationship with the private sector is a unique strength of APEC, and reaffirmed that it is valuable to learn business perspectives based on their actual experience on trade and investment. We acknowledged the important role of ABAC and appreciated its practical and concrete recommendations to APEC with a view to improving the business environment in the region, particularly the ABAC 2006 Interim Report to APEC Economic Leaders, and committed to consider their recommendations, including support for the successful completion of the DDA negotiations, the need for IPR protections, and addressing energy supply, diversification and conservation.
We also noted with satisfaction the informal dialogue between SOM and ABAC representatives in Montreal, Canada to discuss matters of common concern, including the development of the DDA negotiations, RTAs/FTAs and the Busan Business Agenda. We considered this dialogue as valuable steps towards strengthening ties with business sector, and called for officials to take full advantage of opportunities to directly learn from business on emerging issues and looked forward to future SOM/ABAC dialogue.
We welcomed the recommendations put forward by business at the conclusion of a May 31 symposium on trade and investment convened in Ho Chi Minh City by 300 private-sector representatives from around the region. Those recommendations included the need for strengthened efforts to successfully conclude the Doha Development Agenda and for promoting high-quality FTAs. We noted the business focus on information, services and innovation-driven trade and investment, given the region's comparative advantage in key growth sectors such as information and communications technology, supply chain management, financial services and innovative life sciences. We directed APEC officials to work in partnership with business to identify the optimal regulatory and policy environment that would allow APEC economies to capture the benefits of these emerging economic opportunities.
2. Industry Dialogues
Auto Dialogue
We applauded the Auto Dialogue's completion of its stocktaking review, a worthy exercise that resulted in measuring past performance and formulating guidelines for subsequent meetings. We noted the Auto Dialogue's positive work in support of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), and encouraged the group to continue working with the Global Automotive Industry Dialogue (GAID), a group seeking solutions to address non-tariff barriers of particular concern to the automotive sector. We supported the Auto Dialogue's numerous initiatives including the IPR Best Practices paper, work on global harmonization of technical regulations, and the used vehicles paper. We also noted the group's efforts on two projects, the Customs Model Port Project to implement Customs Best Practices identified by the Auto Dialogue and, a Road Safety Summit to draw greater attention to APEC economies regarding this ongoing issue.
Chemical Dialogue
We welcomed the efforts of economies to accelerate and coordinate implementation of APEC' s agreement to expedite implementation of the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) on Hazard Classification and Labeling of Chemicals and Safety Data Sheets, including through a possible pathfinder approach, which would be explored following the coming Seminar on GHS implementation to be held in Thailand. We urged economies to ensure that the implementation process does not result in barriers to trade. Our concern over the potential of the EU's REACH system to constitute a significant barrier to trade in chemicals remain strong. We called on the EU to ensure that REACH adequately protects confidential business information. We encouraged the Chemical Dialogue to continue raising awareness of initiatives outside APEC that affect the competitiveness and trade prospects of the chemical industry in the region.
Life Science Innovation Forum (LSIF)
We welcomed the progress in the implementation of the Life Sciences Strategic Plan as a way to promote global public health, as well as trade and investment in innovative life sciences products and services. We recognized the important role of the Life Sciences Innovation Forum as a vehicle for collaboration and partnership among government, the private sector, and academia. We noted the successful series of workshops on medical device regulatory harmonization focused on the Study Groups of medical devices Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) and encouraged member economies to consider the GHTF guidance documents when establishing and improving their medical device regulatory regimes. We were encouraged by the progress made on the research project on biomarkers for early disease detection and the large-scale epidemiological study, and efforts to harmonize pharmaceutical regulatory requirements with international best practices. We called for work on capacity building to stem the flow of counterfeit medicines and medical devices. We encouraged economies to give priority to recognizing innovation in the policy and regulatory regimes and facilitate trade in life sciences products given the need to develop innovative life sciences products and services to meet emerging health and economic challenges. We recommended that a "life sciences innovation champion" be appointed in each APEC economy to facilitate communication and collaboration on these projects.
High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology (HLPDAB)
We welcomed the recommendations of the 5th HLPDAB to continue to examine the implications of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on trade in the products of agricultural biotechnology and also to share experiences regarding public perception and understanding of agricultural biotechnology. We also encouraged the HLPDAB to further explore measures and practices to enhance member economies' management capacity in the areas of agricultural biotechnology and biosafety.