Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other meanings of the word, see APEC (disambiguation).
| Image:ApecLogo-2003.jpg | |
| Image:APECMitgliedsstaaten.png | |
| Membership | 21 member economies |
| Seat of Secretariat | Singapore |
| Official website | http://www.apec.org |
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a group of Pacific Rim countries who meet with the purpose of improving economic and political ties. It has standing committees on a wide range of issues, from communications to fisheries.
The heads of government of all APEC members meet annually in a summit called "APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting" rotating in location among APEC's member economies. APEC is famous for its tradition of having attending leaders dress in the national costume of the host nation.
Contents |
Membership
Currently, most countries with a coastline on the Pacific Ocean are members of the organization, with the exception of the following:
- Colombia and Ecuador in South America
- the six Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama
- Cambodia and North Korea in Asia
- the Pacific Islands, such as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
APEC's 21 members by date of membership are the following:
|
Founding members, November 1989: |
3rd Summit, November 1991:
5th Summit, November 1993: 6th Summit, November 1994: |
10th Summit, November 1998: |
Notes
- Template:Note The People's Republic of China represents the interests of mainland China only, since Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are considered separate economies.
- Template:Note Hong Kong joined the APEC in 1991 while British rule and took the name Image:Flag of Hong Kong 1959.svg "Hong Kong." In 1997, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China and took the name "Hong Kong, China."
- Template:Note Per a memorandum of understanding when both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) were admitted into APEC, the Republic of China takes the name of "Chinese Taipei." The president of the Republic of China is not allowed to attend the summit and must send a ministerial-level official in economic affairs as his envoy.
India has requested for an entry into this grouping. Earlier it was strongly opposed to, but given the country's new found economic clout and US support, it it likely that India may be accorded observer status.
Guam has also been actively requesting a separate membership, citing the example of Hong Kong and Taiwan, but the request is objected by the United States, which currently represents Guam.
History and development
In January 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke called for more effective economic cooperation across the Asia Pacific Region. This lead to the first meeting of APEC in Canberra, Australia in November, chaired by foreign minister, Gareth Evans. Attended by ministers from 12 countries, the meeting concluded with commitments for future annual meetings in Singapore and South Korea.
The first APEC Leaders' Meeting occurred in 1993 when U.S. President Bill Clinton, seeing it as a crucial vehicle to bring the derailed Uruguay Round of trade talks back on track, invited member economies' leaders to Blake Island, Washington. At Blake Island, Leaders called for continued reduction of trade and investment barriers, envisioning an "Asia-Pacific community" that promotes prosperity through cooperation. APEC's headquarters are located in Singapore.
APEC's stated "Bogor Goals" adopted in 1994 at the Bogor summit are aimed at free and open trade and investments by reducing tariff barrier to a level of between zero to five percent in the Asia-Pacific area for industrialized economies by 2010 and for developing economies by 2020.
Image:APEC 2004 Official Photo.jpg
In 1995, APEC established a business advisory body, called the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), which consists of three business executives from each member economy.
In 1997 the APEC summit was in Vancouver, British Columbia. Great controversy arose when politicians instructed RCMP officers to use force and pepper spray against non-violent protesters. The protesters objected to the presence of dictators such as Indonesia's president Suharto.
APEC's push for a new round of trade negotiations and support for a program of trade capacity-building assistance at the 2001 summit in Shanghai, led to the successful launch of the Doha Development Agenda a few weeks later. Leaders also endorsed the U.S.-proposed 'Shanghai Accord' which emphasizes implementation of APEC's commitments to open markets, structural reform, and capacity building. As part of the accord, leaders committed to develop and implement APEC transparency standards, reduce trade transaction costs in the Asia-Pacific region by 5% over 5 years, and pursue trade liberalization policies relating to information technology goods and services. Image:Apec 2003.jpg
In 2003, Jemaah Islamiah head Riduan Isamuddin, a.k.a. Hambali, was planning an attack against the October 2003 APEC summit in Bangkok. He was captured in the city of Ayutthaya, Thailand, near Bangkok by Thai Police on August 11, 2003, before he could finish planning his attack on the APEC summit.
In 2004, Chile became the first South American nation to host the summit. The agenda of the APEC 2004 year was focused on terrorism and commerce, small and medium enterprise development and contemplation of Free Trade Agreements and Regional Trade Agreements.
The 2005 edition was held in November in Busan, South Korea. The meeting focused on the current Doha trade round which is due to be discussed further in a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December of the same year. Weeks earlier, trade negotiations in Paris had been held between various WTO members, including the US and the European Union. The talks centered on reducing agricultural trade barriers. The EU resisted substantial reductions in agricultural tariffs, which risked a meltdown of the process. In response, APEC urged the EU to agree to farm subsidy reduction. Aside from the meetings, peaceful protests against APEC were staged in Busan, but these didn't interfere with the APEC schedule.
APEC annual meetings
See also
External links
- Official web site
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding APECan:Coperazión Economica de l'Asia-Pazifico
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