The APEC Automotive Dialogue (AD) serves as a forum for APEC member economy officials and senior industry representatives to work together to map out strategies for increasing the integration and development of the automotive sector within the region.

The AD was established in recognition of the crosscutting nature of the automotive industry and of the broad benefits to many economies of trade liberalization and facilitation in this sector. It allows the public and private sectors to work together to improve policy development, to identify barriers to growth and to develop effective cooperation mechanisms for APEC economies to address and reduce impediments.

The goals of the AD are to engage participants in cooperative efforts to foster the growth and development of the regional auto industry and to provide actionable recommendations to APEC Ministers and Leaders.

The AD has a clearly defined set of priority action areas based on Leaders’ Declarations and Ministerial Statements as well as instructions from the Senior Officials and Committee on Trade and Investment. The directions for the activities of AD are also set in its Terms of Reference and Work Plan.

The AD first met in 1999 in Indonesia and has continued to meet every year since.

In 2018, AD members met twice: June in the APEC Secretariat, Singapore, and October in Chiang Rai, Thailand. In those meetings, members were updated on 1) market situations in the auto sector; 2) developments in free-trade agreements (FTA); 3) auto-related tax structures and 4) policies and regulations on vehicles in the form of peer review.

AD members agreed to discuss policy-related issues with respect to autonomous driving including electric vehicles.

The 30^th AD Meeting was hosted in Bali, Indonesia from 24 to 28 June 2019. AD members spent this meeting discussing autonomous driving issues. The agenda item on autonomous driving was structured into the following four sessions:

1. Information Sharing Session
2. Panel Discussion on Government’s Perspective
3. Panel Discussion on Industry’s Perspective
4. Panel Discussion on APEC AV Guidelines

AD members agreed to continue discussing this important issue and reach a consensus on the text of the APEC AV Guidelines at the upcoming AD meeting.